Calm after the Storm
by Moonlit-Arrow
Summary: Everyone tries to return to a normal life in the modern world, but nothing's really normal after what happened and when you live with 6 cartoons, is it? (Feat. all characters. All of them. Set in a modern AU)
1. Leaving the studio

{~The first fic I'm posting that isn't either completely finished or close to finishing, I just really wanted to get a fic up for Bendy's birthday~}

* * *

Chapter 1 "Leaving the studio"

Henry smiled as he felt the sun hitting his skin. After so long wandering in the studio, he was starting to question if he was going to get trapped like everyone else, but thankfully that didn't appear to be the case. Instead, he managed to revert everyone to human again and separate the cartoons from their human hosts, so now all of the previously trapped employees were free again.

He felt Sammy hide his face in his shoulder. The musician was a different case than most, even though he was one of the few people with legs when inked, he didn't actually have feet anymore, so Henry was carrying him on his back on the way back to the van, which he was very happy he drove now. Even though Sammy couldn't see at the moment, Henry guessed the light still burned after so long in the darkness.

As for everyone else, everyone who were searchers were still getting used to having legs again, all wobbling a little as they walked. Norman was getting used to being alive again, seeing as he was basically a walking corpse before. And Susie and Alison were now closer than they had been while working at the studio, but that was because they were literally fused together.

They arrived at the van and Henry felt a ping of dread as he looked at it. His van could seat up to maybe nine people at the most, and there were ten people and six toons to fit in the van. There toons had taken the forms of animals to fit in with the world outside the studio better, Bendy and Alice being cats and Boris as a small dog, the Butcher Gang remained as themselves.

Three could share the back row, three in the middle, he was obviously going to drive, he was thinking that Susie and Alison could be up front with him away from the main group of men, which meant someone was sharing seats with someone else. Out of all the men, Sammy was probably the smallest, so he could probably share a seat with someone, maybe Norman?

"Norman, can you take Sammy?" he asked, looking over towards said man.

"Sure," Norman answered, walking over and gently lifting Sammy off Henry's back. The entire time, he whispered what exactly he was doing to him so he wouldn't be surprised since he couldn't see it.

"Susie, Alison, you wanna take the front?" Henry called to the two ladies as he pulled out his keys. "Sammy can hold Alice for you if you want."

"Okay," they both agreed in unison.

"Norman, I'm gonna put you and Sammy in the middle row," Henry explained, speaking his thoughts aloud. He felt that the middle row was easier to get into if you were carrying someone, so it made sense to him. "Whoever wants to sit in the back, go ahead and climb in," he added.

Shawn, Thomas, and Grant all piled into the back seat. Norman took a window seat with Sammy, Wally said he wanted to be next to do those two, and Joey thought his leg wouldn't handle climbing in the back, so those four got the middle row. Susie and Alison both climbed into the front seats. The main three toons also chose the middle row, Alice held by Sammy, Boris by Wally, and Bendy was with Joey, the Butcher gang picked the back with Shawn, Grant, and Thomas.

.~.~.~.

The drive back to Henry's house was going to be a long one. A long ride in a car of ten people and six cartoon characters. Just thinking about it sounded exhausting.

A few hours later, it had reached nightfall and the van finally grew quiet as people started drifting to sleep and the talking ceased. The toons fell asleep first, Wally, Sammy, and Shawn soon followed, Thomas, Norman, and Grant managed to stay awake longer but soon also fell asleep.

"Out like lights," Joey commented with a quiet laugh as he looked at the group of sleeping men and toons. "I suppose that's a good thing. In all our years in the studio, I've never seen these three sleep."

"We have," Susie stated, gesturing to Alison as she said 'we'. "It's less noticeable when you become a puddle when sleeping, but after a while you get used to finding the signs. Did you sleep?"

"I was stuck in the Ink Machine, I had years to sleep," Joey explained. "The only way I could keep up with everyone else was basically telepathically talking to Sammy as Bendy and watching through Bendy cutouts." He sighed and looked over at the sleeping former-prophet. "This is the first time in so long I've seen him so relaxed. The last time wasn't such a good time," he added with remorse in his voice. "God, I'm a monster."

"Hey, you weren't fully with it back then," Henry told him. "You mind was constantly being corrupted by your occult fascination and ink. I know you didn't meant to do all these things."

Joey seemed to pretend to accept that, but it was obvious he was still blaming himself for everything that had happened. And really, he wasn't wrong, it was just that it wouldn't help to constantly feel bad for what happened and Henry hoped that one day he'd get passed that.

The four people who were still awake talked quietly amongst themselves, speaking mostly in hushed voices as not to awaken the others. Henry was getting quite caught up on what all happened while he was and catching Joey, Susie, and Alison up on what was going on in the world outside of the studio.

He told them all about the big events that had taken place, the natural disasters, local elections, the presidential election, which had taken place a couple years ago, a bit about famous people, as much as he could tell them to get them somewhat prepared to meet the world again.

After a while, he had to stop driving for a break, as well as to fill the tank and get food. Luckily, there was a town not even a mile away. He was starting to regret moving so far from the studio, but he still wondered if maybe that was for the best still, now that he was bringing so many people away with him.

He soon pulled the van into a gas station and parked it. "I'm gonna fill up the tank then go in for some snacks," he explained to the three still awake. "Anyone have any allergies I need to know about or anything they need to pick up? Anyone wanna come in with me?"

"It's been a long ride, I think we all need to stretch our legs a bit," Susie stated. "I'd be happy to join you on this trip."

"Me, too," Alison agreed.

Henry nodded. "Joey, can you wake the others and see if any of them want to join us?"

"Sure," Joey replied. He turned to Wally and began tapping his shoulder, only to be met with some snoring. He let out a sigh and gently poke Sammy's leg, which seemed to startling him fairly quickly. "We're taking a quick stop," he explained when Sammy started to shift a bit. "Can you see if you can wake these two up while I try the back?"

Sammy nodded, still moving like a zombie to an extent. His moving, in turn, started to wake Norman up as he started trying to wake Wally. Meanwhile, Joey managed to wake up Grant, who in turn and woke up Thomas, who was the unlucky person to have to wake up Shawn.

Thomas reached over and gave Shawn shoulder a light shake. "Hey, Shawn, get up," he said, shaking a little more when the Irish man refused to listen. He shook a little harder, only to nearly get hit in the face when Shawn awoke in a sudden jump.

"I'm awake!" Shawn cried, eyes flying open and body nearly flying in the air. That was what ended up waking Wally.

"What is goin' on?" Wally groaned, groggily bringing a hand up to his face.

"Mornin'," Sammy greeted.

"It's pitch black, where the heck is in morning?" Wally said, turning to give him a look.

"Oh, it's dark? I didn't notice," Sammy replied with a laugh.

* * *

{~Probably England, Wally. Also headcannon that Sammy and Grant are light sleepers while Wally and Shawn are heavy sleepers.~}


	2. Shopping and Back on the Road

A few minutes later, Henry walked into the gas station's store with most of the group, a small bell announcing their arrival. Joey had stayed at the van, walking around the van as he didn't trust his leg. Sammy was in the van with the toons, since he couldn't exactly walk either and they didn't trust the toons unsupervised in an unfamiliar area.

First order of business upon entering the store, Henry sent everyone else to the cheep clothing and jackets area, telling them to get shirts and jackets for themselves and two outside while he started grabbing some snacks and other essential things. At one point, he thought he heard Wally jokingly ask if something came in a kids' size for Sammy. A clerk soon came out from the back room and started helping them pick out shirts and jackets for everyone.

Henry mentally went over the list of things he needed as he walked around the store. He honestly didn't remember if anyone had any food allergies, so he figured he'd just grab a selection and let them pick out a few foods themselves. He knew it had been years since most of them had gotten any food, so the second they got hungry, they'd be starving in a quite literal sense.

He grabbed a few big chip bags and snack cracker boxes, but he also grabbed a variety pack with serving size pouches of each. While he was at it, he got several bottles of water and some packs of disposable dishes. By the time he got to the counter, he could see the clerk already checking the clothing everyone picked out.

"You got stuff for Sammy and Joey, too, right?" he asked, looking at everyone else.

Wally held up a black t-shirt with a flaming skull on the front, a tag marking it as from the kids' section hanging off of it. "Oh, yeah," he answered, seeming pleased with his find.

Norman held up a red and gray hoodie jacket as well. "It really doesn't matter what we pick since he can't see 'em, but figured red was more his accent color given his hair."

Henry nodded, remember the dyed streak of red that accented his hair in contrast to it's natural silky black. Sammy kept his hair like that for years, it was his look for his online channel, now the streak was most of the way gone, just a couple of inches of red at the bottom, but he had no doubt that Sammy was going to bring it back at some point.

"And for Joey? he asked, making sure they didn't leave him out just for spite.

Grant held up a plain t-shirt and jacket set.

"We couldn't find anything that said "a-hole of the year"," Shawn stated, a hint resentment in his voice. He held up a green shirt and put it on, smiling as he modeled lightly. "Not bad, eh?"

"Stereotyping yourself there, Shawn?" Wally asked, turning to look at him with a smirk.

Shawn crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. "No, it really pulls out the color of my aunt's eyes," he muttered sarcastically. "What? Don't you think green's my color?!" he added, modeling the shirt again as he added a jacket to it. "I think it looks great, myself."

Susie and Alison also went ahead and put on their shirts and Jackets, both pretty pleased to cover up their tattered dresses.

"Oh, we also picked out some things for Sammy and the... pets," Wally added, being careful not to mention that there were living cartoons with them. He held up some toys meant for people with ADHD and such and some pet things such as treats and chew toys.

"Good idea, it's still a long drive back home," Henry said, relieved that someone remembered things like that. He was focused more on the food, he forgot how unbearable the ride might end up being.

.~.~.~.

They bought everything and returned to the van. The clerk said it was okay for them to stick around in the parking lot to rest up for the road and take a break to eat, even letting them bring back any clothing that didn't fit and trade it in for something else if they needed to.

Upon returning to the van, they found Joey leaning against the van and Sammy laying across the seats while he petted Boris and Alice. Bendy was now curled up in the driver's seat and the Butcher Gang were in the back row entertaining themselves. Bendy looked up with a grin when Henry opened the door. "Where to?" he asked, jokingly with a grin no one knew a cat could make.

Henry picked him up and sat him with the other main toons in the middle row so he could set the shopping bags in the seat. "It's a long drive, this might be your only chance to walk around for a while, guys," he stated. "Except you, Sammy, I'd prefer you stay here in the van for obvious reasons."

Sammy nodded in understanding as he was handed a shirt to try on. "You didn't pick out anything embarrassing, did you?" he asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"It's a straight black T with a flaming skull," Wally answered. "Pretty sure I've seen that in your wardrobe before."

Sammy felt around until he found the tag on the collar and put it on. It fit perfectly.

"The embarrassing' part is the fact that it's a kids' size," Wally remarked with a laugh.

"Oh, #!%& off, Franks!" Sammy growled before stopping. A look of shock and horror came over his face. "Um... Wally? What did I just say?" he asked, voice shaking.

"I'm honestly not sure either, I think you just censored yourself," Wally answered, just as confused and surprised. He and Sammy seemed to stare at each other in confusion, not actually staring in Sammy's case, before he decided to snap out of it. "Here, we got you a hoodie, too," he said, holding out the jacket. "Gray and Red. I'll help you put it on."

Despite their bickering and occasional yelling, Wally and Sammy were actually friends. Their first week working together didn't go so well but they stopped hating each other by the next week. Now their bickering and whatever was just their way of friendship.

Henry handed Joey the shirt and jacket that were picked out for him before getting to opening the food. It had been a long time since anyone had anything to eat. "Everyone call your preferred chips, and we have plenty, get seconds if you want," he called.

.~.~.~.

A half hour later, they were on the road again, this time everyone was awake for a while. Wally had grabbed some puzzle books and trivia questionnaires to entertain everyone. This had resulted in several minutes worth of serious discussion about various things, ranging from 'three letter word for color' to 'what is the main tourist draw of an obscure location'.

Boris was happily curled up in Wally's lap, chewing on the chew-toy Wally picked out for him, which was Valentines day themed as it was February. Alice was kneading Sammy's leg as she started to get comfy, looking up in excitement when Sammy held up the little mouse toy with a feathered tail, a similar toy to what Bendy was currently playing with. Barely and Charley were doing a puzzle book together and Edgar was watching the world through the window.

It took a few hours this time before nearly everyone was asleep again. Susie and Alison were still awake, something about being in the front seat seemingly keeping them awake, and Joey was still up as well as Grant. The rest of the passengers were sounds asleep once more

A few hours later and they arrived at Henry's house.

* * *

{~Some of these things in here will come to play later~ ;) . Also, very slight Jacksepticeye reference with shawn's shirt, _very slight._ ~}


	3. Settling in and Bendy's Birthday

The first thing Henry did upon arrival was to take Sammy from Norman so everyone can easily pile out of the van. He carried Sammy upstairs with him as he lead Susie and Alison to try to find them some clothing. He knew it wasn't really ideal, but there was no way he was letting two women in tattered clothing in a house of men.

He managed to find some clothes that he never wore but bought a while back so they were smaller, probably at least closer to a good size for the two women. While he was at it, he found an old, torn pair of jeans from when he was a teenager, he really didn't know what he kept them but now he was glad he did since they were perfect for Sammy, who's pants didn't need to follow cartoon logic anymore and were a bit too big for him at the moment.

Susie and Alison took the clothing and went to the spare room Henry directed them to so they could change. It was one of the bedrooms of the house but currently it was an old, cluttered office space that he never used much. In the mean time, Henry left Sammy in the master bedroom to change as well.

.~.~.~.

As for everyone else, they stayed on the main level for the most part. Henry had given them the request to pull the bed out of the couch before he went upstairs, and that was finished within a few minutes so they just sat around and talked for a few minutes while they waited for Henry to come back.

Henry soon returned from upstairs with Sammy on his back, the musician now looking as he used to with the black t-shirt and torn jeans. Henry sat him down on a chair. "I figured we should get some more sleep," he explained, gesturing to the bed. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm tired."

Wally leaned against the wall and pointed at the couch and the chairs in the room as he silently counted it out, then started counting the amount of people. "There's five places to sleep and eight of us," he stated.

"I have a couple sleeping bags around here somewhere, I think," Henry told him. "Probably in that storage room that I'll need to clean out, I'll go get them."

Henry left and a couple of the others went with him to help.

Wally turned to look Sammy over. "You look just like you did on your channel," he stated. "Some more freckles and less red in your hair, but other than that, almost exact."

"Thanks," Sammy replied softly. He felt the tears in the jeans with one hand and smiled softly. "Who knew Henry used to be in fashion?" he added with a laugh.

It wasn't long before Henry, Grant, and Thomas returned with sleeping bags and armloads of blankets and pillows. About a half hour later, everyone was curled up and sound asleep in their own somewhat personal space.

The bed in the couch could seat up to three, a bit crowded but it was possible, Shawn, Wally, and Thomas agreed to the crowded bed. It turned out that Henry owned three sleeping bags, bought for a camping trip a while back, Henry, Norman, and Grant slept in those. That left just two people and the two armchairs, Sammy was already curled up in one and Joey took the other, Boris sleeping by Sammy and Bendy on Joey's lap. Alice was upstairs with the girls and the Butcher Gang slept where ever they wanted.

.~.~.~.

It was about 11 when Henry woke up. Everyone else seemed to still be sleeping, including the toons, Boris now stretched out in the chair Sammy was in.

It hit him then that Sammy wasn't in the room anymore, which was impressive for someone who couldn't actually walk. He was initially worried as he got up and started looking around but he soon calmed down once he found him sitting in on the floor in the next room over. "Couldn't sleep?" Henry asked, sitting down next to him.

"Something like that," Sammy replied softly. "I thought you were still asleep," he added.

"I just woke up," Henry explained. "I didn't think you could even move very far on your own at all with the state of your legs, I'm impressed," he stated, smiling warmly. "Something up?"

Sammy stayed quiet for a few seconds but sighed and continued talking again. "It was only a nightmare and nothing else," he explained softly. "I... I know you wanted me to stay put with the others because of my legs and all... sorry..."

"Hey, it's okay," Henry whispered, wrapping an arm around his thin shoulders to calm him down. "I just didn't want you to accidentally hurt yourself, that's all. I'm actually pretty impressed, you seem okay. Just, please, don't do that frequently, okay?"

"Okay," Sammy agreed, leaning against him lightly. "Can I ask you something?" he asked after another minute of silence.

"Sure."

"Why do you still like me?"

Henry looked at him for a second. "Because you're my friend and nothing's going to change that," he answered. "No matter what the ink and Bendy did to your head, it's not going to change anything. Now, do you want to talk about the nightmare or anything?" He hoped the question wasn't invasive or going to bother him, he was just a little concerned about something that could get him to up and leave like that.

"Nothing more than a repressed memory from the studio," Sammy explained. "It used to happen all the time but then it stopped, I guess I just wasn't expecting it again."

.~.~.~.

Normally he wouldn't do this. but now things were different. Now Bendy was a living, breathing being and Joey had kept track of the days when the characters were created anyway, so why not? Besides, after being trapped in a studio for several years, he didn't think anyone was going to disagree with celebrating.

He stayed with Sammy until everyone else was awake, then went shopping on his own. Everyone would be fine while he was gone, he trusted them. This was going to be a surprise for just about everyone involved, Bendy, the other toons, everyone from the studio, himself, literally everyone involved.

Tomorrow, he could take everyone shopping for more clothing, maybe even including Sammy. He also needed to clean up the two spare bedrooms in his house, but that, too, could wait a bit.

In the mean time, he just wanted to give Bendy a good birthday.

.~.~.~.

When he returned home with groceries, he sent Bendy and the other toons as well as a few humans upstairs to get him out of the way while he worked on the surprise, telling them he needed to find something he was sure was in that room. In reality, it wasn't in the room, it was actually in the room it was meant to be in.

After they left the room, he turned to everyone else who gathered in the dining room to help put things away. "No one tell Bendy, but I have a surprise for him," Henry explained. He pulled a cake out of a bag and set it down on the table. "February 10th was the day Bendy was first created, and I thought that we should celebrate it since he's alive now."

"So it's like his birthday?" Alison asked.

"That sounds great," Susie added.

Sammy lifted an eyebrow slightly as he folded up the shopping bags into a neat pile. He put a peaceful expression onto his face and said nothing

The cake was marbled, funfetti white and chocolate with bright and colorful buttercream icing. To go along with the cake, he also bought a bucket of ice cream and a few packs of cookies, since there were a lot of people living with him. He also made sure to buy bright disposable party dishes as well.

The other thing he got was a toy as a birthday gift for Bendy, a little plushie version of the little devil himself. Well, technically he didn't buy the plushie, he actually already owned a few from his time working on the show and it felt like a good gift to give the demon.

With everyone's help, the table was set with the cake as the center piece and ice cream and cookies on the sides. The gift was also wrapped within minutes with a cute gift bag and lots of colorful tissue paper. This world was colorful, not the black and white world of the cartoon and the studio, and everyone wanted to fully introduce Bendy and the other toons to it.

Once everything was set up, Henry went upstairs, rapping gently against the door to the cluttered room. "Hey," he greeted when the three toons and Wally and Shawn looked up at him.

"Hey," Wally called back. "So about this thing yer lookin' fo-"

"Oh, that? Um, just forget it for now, I got something from the store I think you guys might be interested in," Henry said, trying to brush the wild-goose-chase aside. "Especially you, Bendy, I got a real surprise for you."

Bendy, who turned back into his toon form, as did the rest of the toons, jumped up in excitement. "What kind of a surprise?!" he asked, running up to Henry.

"It wouldn't be a surprise if I told you," Henry laughed. "C'mon downstairs, I'll show you."

.~.~.~.

It was quiet as Bendy followed Henry downstairs. Eerily quiet. The silence wasn't very long though as he entered the dining room and was greeted by everyone else already standing there.

"Surprise! Happy birthday, Bendy!" Everyone called.

He could feel something liquid at his eyes once again, not a feeling he felt since the studio when his eyes wee covered by ink. It was a feeling he recognized as crying, but he felt so happy he didn't know why he would be crying. He turned and wrapped his arms around Henry's legs in a tight and happy hug. "I love it so much!" he cried in joy.

"That's not all," Henry said. He knelt down picked up a small gift bag, handing it to Bendy. "Happy birthday, Bendy."

The small demon ripped away the tissue paper and whistled in pure excitement as he pulled out a plushie version of himself. Immediately, he hugged Henry again.

After that was his first taste of human food, and it tasted amazing! Everything had so much sugar in it and he loved it.

And that night he curled up in cat form on Joey's lap again, as he did the night before, but this time he kept the plusie of himself beside him. It was his best birthday ever, even if it was just the first.

* * *

{~This entire fic to this point was written in the span of a couple days because I wanted to write and post something for Bendy's first birthday ^-^. It's not the end of the fic, of course. Thanks for reading~!~}


	4. Clothes Shopping, Pizza, and Arguments

The mall wasn't that far, only twenty minutes from Henry's house, it shouldn't have been that bad or anything. Like most things with this group, easier said than done. As it was, it was the longest twenty minutes of anyone's life.

Henry drove, it was his van after all, and Susie and Alison sat up front again like the last time, and also like the last time, the back was crowded with men. Unlike last time, everyone was awake and uncomfortable. For a while, the back was quiet hissing of arguing, and thankfully it stayed that quiet way for the most part and only started to escalate just as they were pulling into the parking lot.

Everyone got out of the van and started walking towards the store. The mall meant multiple clothes stores, even a thrift store, which they were thinking might be the best one to start at.

Of course, they got some interesting looks in the parking lot, a nearby little kid, probably around five or so, asked his mother why one of the group was missing feet and being carried. In response to that, Sammy groaned and hid his face in Wally's shoulder, but Wally just laughed slightly. The mother hushed her son and everyone continued walking.

The thrift store was a fairly big one with an extensive clothing section, thankfully. Everything was separated by gender and size, so everyone quickly split into groups to find the clothing they wanted. Susie and Alison went to the ladies' section, naturally, while the boys separated by size range for the most part, Wally, Sammy, Grant, and Shawn being one group while Henry, Joey, Norman, and Thomas were another.

"Never in a million years would I have thought the two of us would start working together," Alison stated as she skimmed the rack of shirts. She pulled out a light blue one that was a little frillier with eyelets and tiny ruffles flaring at the collar and sleeves, little details embroidered into it. She held it to herself and stared at her reflection in the metal rack, unsure if she liked the color.

"You look great, Allie," Susie assured her. She laughed slightly. "I remember when the studio first started, Wally made a joke and Sammy hated him for a week, but then they started getting along," she explained. "I guess we're becoming a lot like those two."

"I think we had more reason to hate each other than a simple joke," Alison commented.

"Let's not discuss the past, let's just get back to shopping," Susie said, pulling out a coral top with rhinestones sewn in a pattern on the front. "After all, Alice is alive now, she doesn't need a vocalist, there's no need to fight over who's the better voice anymore."

"That's true," Alison agreed.

.~.~.~.

"Of course you pick something nerdy," Wally muttered, looking over the shirt Grant picked out. It was a blue polo shirt with a white collage and a front pocket that had some pun or something made of math on it. "Only you would show the world that you're an accountant," he sighed.

"I like numbers," Grant stated with a shrug. "As do you, if I'm not mistaken, you did study engineering, after all."

"And dropped out," Wally replied. He pulled out a navy blue tank in a fairly thin size, "cause of death, slow wifi" was written on the front in white letters with a skull in the middle of it. "Sammy, I found a shirt that screams you," he said, handing the shirt off to Sammy. "Find anything, Shawn?"

Shawn turned to him, holding up a pair of blue jeans and a Halloween shirt that was lime green with black spider webs and purple spiders all over it. "It's tacky and I love it," he stated. "The stitch work's a little cheap, but not bad." He handed the clothes over to Sammy, who was sitting on an ottoman, folding and watching all the clothing.

Wally continued to shift through the rack until he looked up on top of it. It was like the heaven's just opened up and light was raining down upon the blessed shirts. "Jackpot," he breathed, smiling widely at it. "Gentlemen, pick your fandom."

.~.~.~.

Henry had left them a while ago, going to search for household items since he didn't need clothing. But he did have a group of missing humans and cartoons living in his house now, and that was something to go shopping for.

For starters, he wanted to get the Butcher Gang some things to entertain them with as well as get them a place to sleep, since the last couple nights they slept in the weirdest places they could. Now, all the toons were a bit like children in some respect, so he started in the children's section.

Not long later, he picked out two play tents, a few toys, a couple building kits, and some clothing for small children for five out of six of the toons, since Boris was taller than the others. He also picked up books for just about all ages, including one about reading braille and one actually in braille.

With the haul for the toons picked out, he started looking around for other things for his new roommates, soon completing a small haul for that, too.

A checker was kind enough to keep everything for him while he went to check on everyone else. Susie and Alison were amassing a nice collection of clothes, shoes, and a few accessories. Joey, Thomas, and Norman had a decent amount of clothes as well and were working on a pair of shoes each. Then he got to the last group.

He was greeted with Wally smiling widely at him as he held up a stack of graphic t-shirts, some were clearly things like anime, superheros, and a variety of band shirts that were probably mostly Sammy's. "We hit the motherload!" Wally informed him happily.

Sammy looked up in his vague direction and finished folding a pair of jeans, sitting in on the stack of the rest of the clothing that sat next to him on the ottoman. "Please tell me there's a little black in that pile," he requested.

"You need to wear more colors, Sammy," Wally replied. "You've been nothing but black and white for years, none of us have, it's time you branch out to blues or something."

"Wally's right," Susie agreed as she and Alison joined the group, the two other groups returning to merge together again. "And I promise you he picked out some good clothes for you exactly in your style but a little more colorful," she assured him.

"You guys pick out some shoes and bring everything to the checkout, okay?" Henry told them, going back towards the checkout counter to begin buying everything as he had a feeling that it would take a while.

Sure enough, it did. What felt like an hour but was probably about ten minutes later, everyone had new clothes, coats, and shoes including the toons but excluding Sammy on the shoes part. After that, they did a quick trip to the van to load up the shopping bags then back to the mall for lunch.

.~.~.~.

"Here you go everyone, eat up," Henry said, sitting the last pizza on the group's table. Seeing as it was such a large group of people, they split up again so about half the people were at one table and the other at another. He left them to go sit at the table with Joey, Grant, Thomas, and Norman. The other table consisted of Wally, Sammy, Shawn, Susie, and Alison.

Wally quickly took a piece of pizza a shoved it in his mouth, taking a bite and sighing happily. "I think I just died and went to heaven," he stated.

"Eat with your mouth closed like a normal person," Sammy told him, carefully picking up his piece to take a small bite. "Never realized how much I'd miss pizza, or food in general really," he commented.

"It's pretty good," Alison agreed.

"In the studio, all we had to eat was Bacon Soup and ink," Susie added. "It's wonderful to have pizza again."

"We should have marketed bacon pizza instead of soup," Wally agreed with a laugh. He sat his pizza down and turned to look to the side of the table, sighting a small, plastic container filled with candy hearts and a sign that read "Free! Happy Valentines Day!"

"Cool, free Conversation Hearts," he stated, smiling excitedly.

"Conversation hearts? They're called Sweet Hearts," Sammy corrected him.

"I've only heard Conversation Hearts before," Wally argued.

"What world do you live in in-which-?" Sammy started to argue before getting cut off by Susie.

"Let's not fight over candy, boys," Susie sighed.

"They've been called both, it's fine," Alison agreed

"It's whatever you want to call it," Susie stated. "Sweet Hearts, Conversation Hearts, it's whatever."

"Let's just go back to appreciating pizza," Wally said with a smile

"Fine," Sammy agreed.

* * *

{~ I had meant for this to be done by Valentines Day... obviously that didn't happen seeing as the fic itself wasn't even posted. Anyway, the argument in here is inspired by an iJustine video (Valentines Day Cake Fight), which had inspired me to look up the name of the candy hearts.

Their copyrighted name is 'Sweet Hearts', they were created by the New England Confectionery Company (now Necco) in 1847 and words were added in 1866. They can also be called 'Conversation Hearts', so technically both arguments are true. Also, not to be confused with the similar candy from the UK called 'Love Hearts', which are circular with hearts and words printed on them and are inspired by something from the Victorian-erra.

Anyway, thanks for reading the fic and this kinda long author's note ^-^ ... would say I'm sorry for how long it is, but I'm actually not because candy facts ^-^~!}


	5. Cleaning and Links?

They had spent most of the day in the mall, buying lots of clothing and other items they knew they probably needed. After shopping, the rest of the day was spent doing laundry, and they still weren't done with it by the time it was time for bed.

Everyone was still asleep when Henry woke up, everyone else still getting used to having a sleeping schedule of any sort. It looked like Sammy was still asleep, thank goodness, and Boris had curled up on the chair with him, just like how Bendy was curled up on Joey's lap. The Butcher Gang were happily sleeping in the little tent Henry and Wally had set up for them.

He got up and went to get started on the things they needed to do, starting with breakfast and getting the laundry out of the dryer. Thinking of the laundry he remembered that they needed to go furniture shopping. But first, before they could do that, they needed to assign rooms to everyone and clean up the place.

His house had three bedrooms, a master bedroom and two other ones. That meant a lot of people were going to be rooming together. Of course, the most important thing to do first was clean up the spare rooms, after that everyone could decide who was rooming with who.

A small noise stirred him from his thoughts, bringing his attention back to the living room. He crept back in to see barely any change, but Sammy was moving slightly, Boris, who was sleeping in dog form, was now awake and nudging him in an attempt to wake him up. Another nightmare.

He woke up just as Henry walked up to him, breathing shaky and heavy breaths as his milky-white eyes stared forward. "You okay?" Henry asked, accidentally causing him to jump as he turned to face him.

"I-I'm fine," Sammy answered, sounding unsure himself. He still looked uncomfortable, still calming himself down after the nightmare. Boris seemed to notice this fact and started nuzzling his arm and licking his face until he started smiling and laughing quietly.

"You feel like going back to sleep or anything?"

Sammy looked in his vague direction and shook his head, his hand scratching Boris behind the ear as the wolf started panting happily.

Henry gently moved Boris from Sammy's lap and picked Sammy up, carrying him bridal-style to the dining room where he sat him down in a chair, Boris happily following him. He walked across the room and picked up his phone from the charger and unlocked it, handing it to Sammy along with the box of air-pods. "Feel free to listen to music or a video or something, just ask Siri," he explained.

Sammy felt the air-pods and made a confused face but quickly got the vague idea. "Hey, Siri, play some music." After a few seconds he took the air-pods out and gave Henry a questioning look. "How long has it been since you bought iTunes? This play-list is old even by my standards, and I don't know the current music at all."

Henry just rolled his eyes. "You want some current music? Hey, Siri, play Imagine Dragons," he called as he picked up a piece of paper and a pen, sitting at the table across from Sammy. "That better?"

Sammy put one air-pod in and left the other out, shrugging lightly. "It's not bad," he muttered. "It's pretty catchy, actually."

"Glad that current music still meets your high standards," Henry laughed.

.~.~.~.

A while later, everyone else started waking up and slowly filing into the room. By this point, Henry had finished a to-do list for the day, and one just in general, as well as a shopping list for what else they needed, and he and Sammy were currently working on laundry.

"Mornin'," Henry called to everyone. He quickly finished putting the folded laundry in the clean basket, moving it to a desk off to the side. "There's cereal, frozen waffles, bacon and eggs, all sorts of food, help yourselves, Sammy and I already ate," he added, gesturing to the kitchen.

After everyone else got breakfast, Henry went over the lists with them and wrote down any suggestions as well as who the roommates were probably going to be. Of course, everyone rooming together were the normal groups that they normally split into anyway.

Then it was time to clean, which was the most daunting task of all. Sammy, Wally, and Shawn were left in the living room with the toons, entertaining the six of them and just hanging out. Everyone else were crammed into the same, small room to clean.

Susie and Alison went to work cleaning the closet, which was mostly filled with random gear that Henry had thrown into it at some point. Of course, the closet was going to be used to store clothing now, but it was used to store a many of different items by Henry, mostly some tech supplies and some exercise supplies, like a yoga mat and some weights.

Norman, Thomas, and Grant were working together to try to organize and condense boxes. Meanwhile, Joey and Henry were separating piles of 'keep, trash, and give away', getting items from the other three men to place in the piles in order to free box space.

It was something Henry had been meaning to do for a long time but never wanted to do it. Nothing like a bunch of new roommates to inspire cleaning, right?

.~.~.~.

Meanwhile, the toons were excitedly playing in the living room while the three 'sitters' were hanging out on a couch and catching up on YouTube, since Henry had given them the password to his laptop.

The Butcher Gang were playing in their tent, as they usually spend their time now that they had it. And now they were also dressed in cute kid's clothes, Edgar wearing a Spider-Man shirt, Barely in a pirate costume, and Charley wore a green shirt with little eye-balls on it that Shawn picked out for him.

The main three toons were playing with some pet toys, since they constantly took the form of pets. Truth be told, they enjoyed it, especially Boris since he could just lay down and chew on a bone, as he was doing at the moment. Bendy was batting around a little ball with a bell in it and Alice was cleaning the feathers on a cat-nip mouse toy.

Boris looked up and towards the couch, getting the other two to look at him with the sudden movement.

"What's up?" Bendy asked, looking at him in confusion.

"Sammy's panicking again," Boris answered, keeping his voice low. His ears drooped slightly as he continued to watch the couch.

The other two glanced over at the couch. The three humans seemed perfectly fine, Wally and Shawn were laughing as they watched the video and Sammy leaned closer to Wally, who wrapped his arm around his shoulders in a tight, comforting way.

"You can tell?" Bendy asked. His eyes widened and he looked back at Boris with a smile. "Oh, I get it! You and Sammy got a connection like me and Joey!"

"Something like that," Boris explained with a nod, turning his attention back towards Sammy. "The reality of everything keeps setting in, he keeps panicking even more," he added, ears drooping further. He jumped up from his bone and raced over to the couch, hopping into Sammy's lap and licking at his face.

Sammy laughed lightly and brought his hands up to scratch Boris behind the ears again. "What's up with you, buddy?" he asked, only to get answered with more licking.

"I guess we all have connections with our humans," Alice stated idly. "I have one with Susie and Alison, I don't think they've quite noticed yet though."

"I don't think any of them have noticed," Bendy agreed. "I guess they've been so busy here lately, they haven't had time to notice what all has changed thanks to what happened at the studio."

The two of them stayed silent for a second before Alice voiced a question running through both their minds.

"Do you think the Butcher Gang have any connections with the humans?" she asked, her voice soft with concern.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it," Bendy replied with a snort. "We're sure to find out soon enough, it's not like they can stay busy forever, right?"

Alice looked towards him and smiled lightly, giving him a quick nod of agreement.

.~.~.~.

"A couple hours of cleaning, and all that we're really accomplished is a wall of boxes and a few piles of random stuff," Thomas complained.

"Cleaning takes time," Henry reminded him.

"Besides, it'll be worth it since this is going to be someone's bedroom, or some people's," Grant added, rolling his eyes slightly. He knew Thomas wasn't one for cleaning, he'd heard him complain about that before when he wasn't judging the elevator, but hopefully he'd calm down about the clean since it would be over soon.

Thomas sighed. "I know," he muttered. "You know, the toons don't really need sitters, why aren't the others helping us out?"

Henry was quiet for a second. "Because, truth be told, it's entirely because I don't trust the toons," he explained. "I mean, yeah, the toons did get in some trouble yesterday while we were out, but that's not entirely why I stationed those three down there."

Grant squinted as he tried to focus on Henry. He hadn't told anyone yet, but without his glasses, he couldn't see much more than Sammy could. Of course, he couldn't get new glasses, that would be expensive and difficult to arrange, so he didn't see the need to bring it up.

"So it has nothing to do with the fact that we came back to Alice on top of the cabinets and Bendy had shredded the paper towels?" Alison asked, her voice sounding a little suspicious.

"That's why there's three of them down there," Henry added with a slight laugh. "In all seriousness though, it's because I don't want Sammy to injure himself or anything, so I thought leaving him with Wally was a good idea. It's really impressive what all Sammy can do, for a guy with no feet, I just would rather some insurance that he'll be okay. Besides, with those three taking care of the toons, there shouldn't be any trouble."

"We're working in shifts, right?" Grant asked, bringing everyone's attention to him. "I'll take the next shift with the toons, I need to talk to Sammy."

"I'll come with you," Joey added, taking a step forward and shifting so his weight was back on his cane instead of his bad leg.

As the two of them started towards the living room, Grant decided it was time to break the truth to Joey. He was about to try to start talking about it when Joey seemed to read his mind.

"Is everything okay?" Joey asked, looking towards him. "You've been squinting a lot, I'm assuming your sight hasn't improved much, has it?"

"I'm not going to bother Henry with the fact that I need glasses, especially with everyone else having medical needs as well," Grant replied. "I can manage without the glasses, I just thought it was time to take a quick break."

"Well, don't push yourself too hard," Joey reminded him. "Your sight will only get worse if you keep straining like that. Also, if you don't bring up to Henry yourself, I will. And if I don't, you can bet that someone else will, everyone here works together and cares for each other, no one is going to let you suffer in silence."

That was a nice reminder. Having always worked separate from everyone else, it was easy to forget that he was friends with everyone. Grant smiled lightly and turned to look at Joey, even if it took a little squinting to see him somewhat clearly. "Thanks, Mr. Drew," he thanked him.

"You're welcome, and no need to be so formal, I'm not your boss anymore," Joey assured him.

* * *

{~Little bit of lore here ;) . Thanks for reading ^-^~! ~}


	6. Snowball Fight!

Wally's arm and Boris's help stirred him from his anxious thoughts, from the few memories he had. Sammy smiled as he pressed closer to Wally, arms wrapped loosely around Boris in a hug. His heart rate was still beating far too fast, and the panic was still there, but it was finally dying down again.

"You okay?" Wally whispered to him.

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?" Sammy replied, trying to keep his voice stable between the shaking breath and the laughing from Boris nuzzling against him.

Wally was quiet but soon spoke. "Just checkin'," he commented quietly, his voice showing that he didn't fully believe that.

After several minutes of listening to the video Wally and Shawn found, a video from a YouTube gamer playing a game he kept insisting he was the king of, his heart rate started to calm down again, the panic attack finally slowing to a near stop. The man they found was surprisingly funny, and his voice sounded fairly nice.

The next video was the same man they were just watching, but this one he was talking with his dog and buying a van.

Soon, a couple people walked in. Wally or Shawn, whoever held the laptop, paused the video to talk to them.

"Hey," Grant greeted.

"Hey," Shawn called back.

"Do you know da wae?" Wally asked, grin obvious in his voice.

"What?!" Grant and Joey asked in unison

Sammy brought a hand up to his face with a sigh but continued to smile softly. He wasn't about to admit it, but he did find it funny.

.~.~.~.

Joey watched the toons rather than the computer in his lap, watching Bendy as he curled up in a chair with his plushie while Alice watched birds outside the window along with Edgar; Charley and Barely were entertaining themselves with a floor puzzle near their play-tent-house.

He turned to look at the two on the couch next to him as he pulled up another video. Grant sat directly next to him, keeping his eyes closed to rest them after straining them for long, his arm resting around Sammy's shoulders. Meanwhile, Sammy was leaning against Grant as he played with Boris.

It was nice to see them relaxed after everything. Truth be told, he never thought they'd even be human again, much less be relaxed and even happy again.

A noise at the window got his attention, as well as everyone else's. He looked up to see Alice batting at the window, little snow flakes gently floating down from the sky. "Watching the snow, Alice?" he asked, smiling lightly.

Boris perked up at that, racing to the window and barking excitedly, waking up Bendy on accident. The commotion caused Bendy and the rest of the Butcher Gang to run to the window as well.

"Snow!" Bendy cried excitedly. "Real snow! Not like the animated snow!" He turned excitedly to Joey, turning back into his toon form as he did so. "Can we go outside?!"

"Well, I think we should ask Henry first, but otherwise I don't see why not," Joey answered.

Bendy smiled widely and ran off to ask Henry, Boris and Alice soon following suit in their toon forms as well. Soon enough, several pairs of footsteps headed towards the room, the toons running in closely followed by all the humans who were formerly cleaning the room.

"Bendy, put on a coat first, it's cold out there!" Henry called as Bendy ran straight for the door. He quickly ran up and wrangled the little demon, putting the tiny coat on him. "Back yard, I don't want to explain this to my neighbors yet," he added, leading the toons towards the back door.

Wally and Norman walked up to the couch. "Wanna come outside, too, Sammy?" Wally asked.

Sammy looked in his vague direction and nodded hesitantly.

.~.~.~.

Not long later, everyone was outside playing in the fresh snow. Wally and Shawn were the first to initiate a snowball fight, dragging the toons into it soon after they finished building a snowman. Well, Alice and Bendy built the snowman anyway, Boris ran around trying to eat the snowflakes

Henry leaned against the back of the bench, smiling as he watched everyone else have fun. Beside him on the bench were Joey and Sammy, Joey watching everyone else and Sammy messing with some snow he picked up and forming it into a ball.

"Henry, where's Wally?" Sammy asked, getting Henry's attention. He finished rubbing the sharp edge out of the snowball he in his hands... his glove-less hands...

"He's on the right side of the yard," Henry answered, a little curious as to why Sammy wanted to know. "Also, please put your gloves back on."

"You try wearing gloves when you're missing fingers, it's uncomfortable," Sammy replied calmly. His feet weren't the only body parts he was missing, he was also missing both his pinkie fingers, small stubs on each hand as an eerie reminder of what was once there. Interestingly, so far this appeared to be the first instance of him actually minding that fact.

A smirk spread across his lips as he seemed to focus on something. Suddenly, he pulled his hand back and threw the snowball, hitting Wally square in the back.

"Hey!" Wally cried, turning to glare at him, not that Sammy would notice his face, just the tone of his voice.

"Direct hit!" Sammy called to him with a laugh as he celebrated.

"I see how it is," Wally said, a grin coming to his own face. Quickly, he knelt down and formed a ball of snow that he threw at Sammy.

"Oh, it's on!" Sammy cried after getting hit. He leaned down to pick up more snow from in front of the bench, forming another ball and launching it as hard as he could. Miraculously, even though Wally tried to dodge, it was still a direct hit.

Henry and Joey both exchanged glances of confusion that no one else seemed to notice, silently asking each other the same question.

Wally ran over and scooped Sammy up. "If you wanna play dirty, then come out here and join us!" he said, only for Sammy to shove some snow directly into his face with a laugh. "You little-!" he cried in shock.

Sammy just laughed, wrapping his arms around his neck so Wally couldn't even think of dropping him. "Did you really think I didn't have a trick up my sleeve, Franks?" he asked.

"I call having Sammy on my team!" Shawn called, standing up behind his team's fort.

"Sure, if you want a sneaky, little weasel," Wally muttered.

While everyone else went back to their game, Henry and Joey just stared on in shock. "You saw that, too, right?" Henry whispered to Joey. "I'm not just going crazy, right?"

"I saw it, but I don't believe it," Joey answered. "Either he's not really completely blind, or there's something else. There's no way he should have been able to hit Wally with perfect accuracy from a distance like that."

"Maybe with more time, but that fast... it hasn't even been a week yet, I doubt he could have managed that in such a short period of time, everyone's still getting used to being human again," Henry added.

"I suspect the ink had some more permanent effects that we didn't know about," Joey explained. "I think that might be part of one of them." He sighed, "I'll have to try to find Murrey Hill and ask him if he has any idea of what happened and if it can be reversed."

The two of them continued to watching the others play in the snow, the toons and the humans broken up into teams against each other. Shawn's team included Susie, Alison, Alice, Sammy, Edgar, and Charley. And Wally's team consisted of Thomas, Norman, Bendy, Boris, Grant, and Barely.

While he was happy to see everyone enjoying their time outside, Henry still walked up and paused the game so he could pick Sammy up out of the snow again and bring him back to the bench. He wasn't a doctor or anything, but he couldn't imagine sitting in the snow for that long was exactly healthy. Besides, if he remembered right, Sammy was never one for the cold.

Sure enough, after they were both seated on the bench again, Sammy leaned closer to him and shivered. Still, he seemed pretty happy, probably because he wasn't in the studio anymore.

"Cold?" Henry asked him, smiling as he wrapped an arm around Sammy's shoulders.

Sammy leaned against him more and nodded.

Henry stood up, much to Sammy's annoyance. "Here," he whispered, gently placing his arms under Sammy's knees and at his back to pick him up again. "Let's go inside, okay?"

"Okay," Sammy agreed.

.~.~.~.

Henry sat down on the coach next to Sammy, carefully handing him a mug of hot chocolate before taking a careful sip from his own cup. "Enjoy playing outside with everyone else?" he asked, staring up a conversation.

Sammy took a sip and nodded softly.

"Can I ask you a question?" Henry asked quietly after an awkward pause. He wasn't sure if it was a good idea to bring it up or not, but he still decided to build up the courage and just ask. "How did you manage to hit Wally like that?"

Sammy paused. "Honestly? I really don't know," he answered, milky white eyes staring downward. "Didn't think it would work, I just threw the snowball in the direction that felt right and it hit," he explained. A slight smile came to his lips. "It's weird, it's like I could feel exactly where Wally was, Boris too, but that doesn't make sense. I couldn't tell where anyone else was unless I could hear them."

Henry sipped his hot chocolate as he processed that information. That... seemed impossible... but was it? Turning people into ink creatures and cartoons was something that he thought was impossible but Joey seceded in, and turning the ink and cartoons back to humans should have been even harder, much less separating them all into their own separate beings again.

 _"Belief can make you succeed. Belief can make you rich. Belief can make you powerful. Why, with enough belief, you can even cheat death itself!"_

Joey was always obsessed with making the impossible possible, and after all these years, he certainly succeeded, just as he said he would. He just hoped that Joey would be able to forgive himself someday and find a way to reverse the other possible effects of the ink if needed.

"Henry?"

He was pulled from his thoughts abruptly, causing him to quickly turn back towards Sammy. "Yeah?" he asked.

"You were so quiet, I was starting to wonder if you were even still here," Sammy stated. He turned to face his, eyes still open. "What were you thinking about?"

Henry's mink scrambled to find an answer, unsure how exactly to explain it. "It's nothing, just thinking of the past, that's all," he answered. "And what Joey said to me about making the impossible possible," he added with an awkward laugh. He turned back to look at Sammy and froze with a slight gasp.

"What's wrong?" Sammy asked, alarm sounding in his voice.

"It's just... your eyes," Henry said, voice shaking. His eyes kept focusing only on Sammy's, zeroing in past the milky white color to the basic shape of the irises. Pie-cut, just like the old cartoons that he and Joey had used for inspiration.

"What about 'em?"

Henry sighed, leaning back on the couch and staring up at the ceiling as he tried to figure out how to explain it. "I don't know how to explain this but... You have cartoon eyes," he said after a minute of trying to word the sentence.

"So?" Sammy asked, getting Henry to look at him again. "Henry, these past several years I've spent as a living ink creature-cartoon thing, Wally says I even have Boris's freckles mixed in with human ones now, I'm honestly not surprised that another cartoon aspect carried over."

When he put it that way, Henry felt a little silly.

"So, are my eyes a problem?" Sammy asked, genuinely curious about it and actually looking a little concerned.

"As long as you don't think they are, I don't think they are," Henry answered, smiling brightly as he brought an arm up and lay it across Sammy's shoulders, which brought a smile to his face. "I think they fit quite well, actually."

* * *

{~ So... I meant for this to be out either Sunday night or Monday morning but I ended up rewriting the first half of this about 3-4 times before I ended up with something I was happy enough with. Also, a lot more 'lore' included here ^-^ . Thanks for reading ^-^ ~!~}

{Also, thanks for the faves, follows, and kind feedback ^-^}


	7. Planning the Future

A cool breeze flowed through the open window, gently rustling the curtains as the group finished cleaning the room. Henry had left to go grocery shopping an hour prior, leaving everyone else to clean the spare bedrooms more, which they were finally close to finishing after a few weeks of constant cleaning.

By this point, they had given up on keeping the toons distracted and out of the way, so all six of them were hanging out in the room with everyone else. Five out of six toons were sitting on the desk in front of the window with Sammy, Boris was helping Thomas tape up a box.

"An eternity and a half later and we're finally finished... with one room," Alison stated with a sigh, sitting down on a small pile of boxes.

"Y'know, I feel sorta bad for Henry," Susie began. "He didn't have to, but he brought all of us back from the ink and the studio, gave us a place to stay, he even pays for everything for us. And he's not even rich or anything."

"Yeah, it feels like we should do more than chores," Alison agreed.

"Well, we need to get jobs anyway," Joey pointed out. "And, as much as I know none of us want to, we need to contact our families."

A groan erupted from everyone else in the room.

"What are we supposed to tell 'em? 'Hey, guess what? We're not as dead as everyone thought we were'?" Wally asked. "Not even my parents would buy that, and they ain't exactly the type to care about what excuse you give 'em as long as it's a happy ending."

"At least you have a chance with your parents," Sammy said with a groan. "The Lawrences are known for our rationality, they'll never accept anything I say. Well, maybe my brother would. Oka-san and Oba-san, not a chance."

"Mostly I'm just dreadin' the hours of obituaries I have to catch up on," Shawn stated.

"We could work on getting jobs first and call our families later," Norman answered. "I used to dabble in repairing old technology, I could set up a business on that."

"I'm a certified repairman," Thomas added. "Me and Wally c'n help with that and I c'n get a regular job as well."

"Don't you need an ID to get a job?" Sammy piped up. "That might not end that well either."

"Well, in some jobs, I'm sure, but there are probably at least a few where they won't ask for one," Joey explained. "Besides, the studio was your first job, you're not exactly one to talk on that."

"It won't be easy, but it should be possible to get jobs," Grant agreed.

Sammy turned his attention towards the window again, letting the breeze blow through his hair. Edgar shifted in his lap as he shifted to face the window, the spider-toon, who curled up in his lap, looking up to join him.

"This might sound weird, but I've been thinkin' of goin' back to collage," Wally said, resting against the vacuum cleaner.

"Really? That's wonderful, Wally," Susie said, turning to smile at him. "What made you decide to go back?"

Wally looked at the desk, eyes landing on Sammy and two members of the Butcher Gang. "Well," he began. "It's a little... complicated."

.~.~.~.

Wally leaned back in the chair, looking out the window then back to the couch.

Henry had come home not long after they finished cleaning the room and now he and Sammy were seated on the couch, the braille book between them as Henry guided Sammy's hand lightly across the page to help him learn to read braille. So far, it seemed to be going well, though it was an interesting learning curve for Sammy.

After a few more minutes, Henry was pulled away by Joey and Grant to talk about something. Finally, Wally was free to talk with Sammy.

He got up from the chair and walked over to the couch, getting Sammy's attention before sitting down next to him. "Hey, Sammy? I've been thinkin'..."

"Don't strain yourself," Sammy laughed.

Wally grinned. "You wound me," he said sarcastically. "Anyway, I've been thinkin'. Remember how we used to have channels on the internet?"

"Vaguely."

"Well, how about we work together to start another channel?"

Sammy turned towards him, white eyes staring at him in confusion. "Um, in case you haven't noticed, I can't exactly see well enough to play video games and music wasn't ever really your forte, so to speak," he pointed out. "Besides, we don't have the equipment."

"C'mon, remember the old times of when you first guest appeared on my channel?"

"Not really."

Wally groaned lightly. "Well, I played the game and you talked, we were trying out live streaming and you agreed to read the chat and talk while I focused on the game. People loved it and kept asking us to work together again. Later we bought some multiplayer games so we could play against each other."

"I vaguely remember that," Sammy muttered. "But I can't really give commentary on a game I can't even see or read a chat."

"But I can," Shawn said, walking in and sitting in one of the chairs. "And the recording equipment at the studio might still work if you, Norman, and Thomas work on it a little."

Wally grinned. "The three of us could really make people laugh if we work together," he said. He always wanted to make people happy. Always. That was why he started a channel before, and it was really something he missed during his years of being dead and trapped in a studio. "So, what d' ya say, Sammy?"

Sammy just sat in silence for a minute. "Wally, I really don't..." he began, stopping when he heard Wally sigh. "Alright," he agreed. He turned towards Wally with a soft smile that soon turned to a smirk. "Are you starting a new channel under a fake name, or are you going to talk to your parents and confirm you're not dead so you can use the old one?"

Wally stared at him and fell back on the couch again. "Alright, I'll talk to my folks and try to get my old channel back," he said, a smile forming across his face. "Maybe it won't be so bad. Besides, it'd be nice to see 'em again. Plus, if I can confirm it's me, I can go back to collage."

Sammy and Shawn both watched him as he spoke, literally only in Shawn's case. "I really hope you do," Sammy told him sportively.

.~.~.~.

His finger flew across the keyboard as he tried his fifth search. It was at this point that he was starting to question how he even managed to find Murry in the first place. Five searches in and he still hadn't found even one lead as to the whereabouts of the man or how to contact him.

Across the table from him sat Henry and Grant as they talked through finances and the idea of everyone getting jobs. Henry agreed with the jobs idea and even volunteered to help if needed, though currently the next focus was more on furniture shopping.

Joey turned his attention back to the laptop and the growing list of things he needed to talk to Murry about. If only the man wasn't so difficult to find.

* * *

{~Sorry this is a little short, also if things don't really make sense, my brain decided to take a nap half-way through ^-^' . Also, the thing with Wally, Shawn, and Sammy was something I had been planning long before even starting this fic, only Shawn wasn't in it before since it was before Chapter 3 came out.

Other head-cannons here: The Franks are the cool family, the Lawrences are rational. Norman likes working with old technology, he was working on fixing up an old projector in his spare time while working at the studio. Sammy is half-Japanese, his mother is Japanese and taught him to speak it fluently, his father is European. (And it isn't because of the 'notice me, senpai' thing, rather I drew him first and gave him black hair, which isn't common in America unless you're of mixed-heritage, and Japanese seemed to fit ... please, don't bring in the 'notice me, senpai' joke).

Anyway, thanks for reading ^-^~}


	8. Heading Out and Further Searching

{~Sorry for disappearing like that, dyslexia's a pain sometimes. Anyway, I tried to write this chapter first in April, didn't like it, didn't really understand it. I'm happier with how this own turned out, but not too thrilled. Hope it's still understandable enough ^-^ ~} {Also, extra notes and replies to reviews at the end}

* * *

 _His footsteps echoed softly through the hall as he slowly and nervously traversed through. He didn't remember this hallway, though it did seem eerily familiar to him, almost as if he had been there before. From the end of the -seemingly eternal- hallway, came a whimper, a painful sounding, soft cry of fear and agony._

 _He finally reached the end of the hallway, stopping in terror at the sight of the cages suspended from the ceiling. In one of the cages, he could see the slim silhouette of another human, the figure hunched in the corner. The whimpering was getting louder as he got closer, it was really making him even more scared than he already was._

 _It only took a few more steps before he realized who it was. His voice caught in his throat and he tensed up, tears stinging at the corners of his eyes. "S-Sammy?" he choked out._

 _The figure look up at him, yellow eyes shining in the darkness. He inched closer to the edge, revealing the ink dripping from small patches of his skin, the patches that weren't blood. "Wall-y?" he asked, smooth voice shaking. Inky black tears ran down from his eyes as he gripped the bars._

 _This explained why Sammy had disappeared last week, though is was a gruesome explanation that he didn't want to know. The musician looked like he had gone through Hell, the ink slowly taking over his body. A second of the two of them staring at each other later, and the trapped one started cackling wildly._

 _"Don't look so worried," Sammy hissed out, grin plastered across his face. "The ink demon will soon save us! He will set us free!"_

.~.~.~.

Wally woke up with a start, the feeling of someone shaking his shoulders adding to the panic. His eyes shot open to be met with Sammy hovering over him, a look of concern plastered across his face.

"You okay?" Sammy asked, backing away from him.

"Y-yeah," Wally replied, bringing a hand up to his face to rub his eyes. "It was just a nightmare..." He looked around the room. Norman had already gotten up, seeing as his sleeping bag was empty. Despite the three of them sharing a room, they so far only had one bed that he and Sammy were sharing while Norman took a sleeping bag.

He turned over to his side with a soft mumble of "Five more minutes..."

Apparently, Sammy was not amused by this as he quickly kneed him in the thigh, to which Wally replied to with a groan. "If you wait five more minutes, you might not get breakfast in time to go to the studio."

His eyes shot open, panic setting instantly. "In time for **_what_**?!"

"You heard me," Sammy replied, his voice still stern. "You're supposed to leave in 30 minutes to get there fairly early in the day, now you should probably get up already," he reminded him in a softer tone, shifting to lean against the headboard instead of hoovering in Wally's face.

Wally sat up as well and began to crawl off the bed, going over to their dresser, which was barely any bigger than a desk and contained only three drawers, one for each of the room-mates. He grabbed out a graphic-tee and a pair of jeans, quickly changing into them to save time later.

"You might want a jacket, too," Sammy told him. "The studio's mostly basements, it can get pretty cold sometimes."

Wally hummed in response, his mind still too sleep-hazed to think of a real reply yet. Immediately after getting dressed, he grabbed a tank-top and ripped jeans from Sammy's drawer. "Heads up!" he called, turning to throw the clothes to him, as he had become accustomed to.

.~.~.~.

A mere half-hour later and the group were about to head out. Seven of them were going to the studio while everyone else were staying at Henry's house, the three humans sitting at the dining room while they did more work. mainly working out plans for the future and such as well as fictional things.

"Kitchen's fully stocked, there's still some leftovers in the fridge but if you have to, you should be able to cook something. The phone's on it's charger in the kitchen, my number's programmed into it, call me if anything happens," Henry said to the three, going through the list of important things. "Please, don't open the door to strangers-"

"What a mother hen," Thomas muttered.

"I swear," Wally muttered in agreement. "If he keeps on like this, I'm outta here."

"First aid kit's in the-" Henry began to add.

"Hall bathroom closet, we know," Sammy cut him off quickly. "We'll be fine, don't worry about us, just worry about yourselves. You're the ones going back into that _Hell_ ," he spoke the last word rather bitterly, eyes narrowing slightly.

"Be careful," Grant added. "There's a chance that there may still be more creatures there, and there's no way of knowing if they're coherent or not."

Joey stared towards the screen of the open laptop in front of him seriously before turning towards Henry with a noticeably fake smile. "Have fun!" he said, adding to the list the other two were making.

.~.~.~.

It took quite a while, but the group finally set off, leaving those three at the house to take care of the six toons while they were gone.

Joey was currently back to his attempts at finding Murry again, the laptop set up in front of him. Next to him, running down one side of the rectangular table the Butcher Gang were coloring some coloring-pages Henry found online and printed off for them yesterday. Across from them were Grant and Sammy, Grant scribbling out some notes and calculations on a notepad and Sammy quietly listing off things for him as a way to help him out.

He knew his first priority was supposed to be locating everyone's families to assure them their loved ones were okay, as well as to get everyone's identities back, seeing as the identities died with them all those years ago. Still, he wanted to track down Murry again to ask him about the possibility of undoing the effects of the machine.

Unfortunately, he couldn't track him down the way he had before, he wasn't going to use Henry's computer or wifi for something so dangerous. There was the hope that Murry had a normal, legitimate website by now to advertise normal work. His eyes glossed over as he remembered his first meeting with Murry.

 _"Lemme get this straight," the man began, pulling his smoking pen from his lips. "You want a machine to merge people with ink?"_

 _Joey nodded. "I figured it would be the best way for the ink to keep shape," he explained. "I know it's a little suspicious for studios to be using ink like this in this day and age, but I've given it a lot of thought and it seems like the best idea."_

 _Murry looked as if he was thinking it over for a second before looking towards Joey with a smile. "I'm not an occult genius or a biology major, but I know a few people who are. Sure, I'll build this machine for you," he agreed. "I'll call up a couple people to help out on the biology and occult parts, we should be able to get this done pretty easily."_

 _Joey smirked and shook the man's hand. Finally, his plan was coming together._

* * *

{~Extra notes:

\- Even though Murry's being shady here, he's still going to be a normal, decent person later. This story seems to redeem everyone, so why not? (I just wrote him shady in the flash-back because how else do you find someone to help you with something so... concerning?)

\- Do I need to add in another Alice and Boris?

-Since there was so much confusion before over Lacie's gender, I've been thinking of giving her PCOS (an illness where there's a testosterone increase in a woman's hormones, making her slightly masculine at times. There's more but that's the basics, the rest affect appearance and such.) Now, I don't know what happens when it goes untreated for too long, but I could just say the ink preserved everything just fine and she gets back on medicine after escaping. Should I?

(I presumably have it so that's why it came to mind.)

~Replies:

No Name (guest): I agree, Alice and Bendy should hate each other, they probably just got along long enough to build the snowman LOL. Also, the idea of Alice trying to eat Boris in this amuses me to no end. I'm just picturing them as a cat and a dog and it reminds me so much of my pets, the cat will kinda 'nom' on the dog sometimes while cleaning her (she never means to hurt the dog, and I refer to it as 'nomming' when she just kinda gently bites something).

And as to why Sammy has a bond with Boris, it goes back to the theories that Sammy was a failed Boris. In this story, I gave Boris a link with all the various versions of himself. And Sammy does have a link with Bendy, it's just not as powerful ^-^ (And Alice and Bendy are the same with their counterparts)

Guest: LOL XD

Dancing-Ink-Demon, Deadlypastlecutie: thanks ^-^ ~!

Thank you so much for your kind words and silly reviews, guys ^-^

Also, if anyone's interested in talking or whatever, I have a tumblr I'm _hopefully_ going to be more active on (steampunk-swift-arrow . tumblr . com). My computer's been a little glitchy lately but hopefully I'll manage to fix that soon and be able to be more active online ^-^

Anyway, long notes overs! Thanks for reading ^-^ ~}

{~ ... Mother Hen- _ **ry**_! Joke? I'm sorry, the opportunity was too good to pass up...~}


	9. Studio and a New-Old Friend

Wally grimaced as he shone his flashlight around, the light reflecting ever so slightly on puddles of ink and sporadic spider-webs. Returning to this place was, in part, his idea, he'd admit that, but it was also a rather _stupid_ idea he wished someone had talked him out of!

He was glad he let Sammy talk him into taking a jacket, it really was getting pretty cold in the many, many basements of the studio. Plus, the jacket was a nice comfort when it came to the creepy things.

"There's a light switch around here somewhere," Henry stated, shining his own flash light around in an attempt to find the actual lights. After searching for several minutes, a tale-tell light switch was visible at last, another several minutes were taken in an attempt to get to it to turn it on.

"I'm not even going to ask how the electricity's still running," Alison commented.

"Joey put in back-up generators and other means of getting electricity," Thomas quickly explained. "He said it was to be 'off the grid', but after what happened, I'm not really thinkin' he was telling the truth."

The group slowly made their way into the music department, turning the lights on there as well. The main goal was to find the sound booth, where Norman used to work, to get the old equipment from there, as well as to get some cameras from other departments.

"Just as creepy as always," Wally stated, looking around the main room. Despite the lights being on, everyone still shone their flashlights around to pick up extra details, which was exactly what he did when something caught his eye. "Hey, my keys!" he cried excitedly, running over to a trashcan in the corner and pulling the metallic objects out. "I spent years lookin' for these!"

He froze a second after, eyes planted to the floor.

Were those...

footprints?

Inky black blobs spaced perfectly for footsteps formed a line leading either to or from the hallway that lead to the offices. They could have just been from a Lost One before Henry showed up, and he really hoped they were, but he couldn't stop the feeling that they might have been... fresher than that.

Dragging his eyes away from the footprints, he quickly followed Norman, Thomas, and Shawn up the staircase to the sound booth.

The equipment seemed to be in better condition than expected, in fact, they seemed almost to be in the same condition they were in when the studio was still in business, just a bit dirtier. Wally, Shawn, and Thomas quickly set to work gathering the audio equipment.

"Someone's been here recently," Norman stated suddenly, everyone freezing. He pointed down to the main music room. "The instruments have been cleaned and put in different places."

Sure enough, the instruments looked to be in perfect condition and were placed in chairs or in the racks where they were supposed to be. The band used to put their instruments back in the racks but after the incident, the instruments had been left abandoned aside from when Lost Ones or Searchers got close to them to relive vague memories.

The four of them quickly finished packing up all the equipment they needed into a carrying case and returned to the others in the group. Susie and Alison had also found the footprints and were trying to figure out where they lead and Henry was heading into the music room to grab a few small instruments to bring back with them.

Afterwards, with the help of a noticeable puddle that the prints started from, they decided that the footprints looked more like they were going towards the hallway of offices. They passed by many of the abandoned offices following the inky trail until it appeared to turn to the infirmary, from there it kept going down a flight of stairs into the sewer system.

"Okay, if there's a random person livin' here, why'd they go down there?" Wally questioned, grimacing at the sight of the sewer system of ink.

"I think I have an idea," Henry replied. He quickly lead the way down the steps and into the inky depths.

Within mere minutes of looking around, an old desk came into view, three walls around it forming a small office space. Next to the desk stood a hat rack, hat still hanging on it. In a chair in front of the desk slumped a figure, soft breathing echoing through the concrete tunnel, signalling that they were asleep.

Slowly, the group approached the office-like space, some already knowing who the figure probably was. The sleeping person woke up and moved their own flashlight quickly to see the group.

"Jack!" Susie, Alison, and Wally cried, rushing towards him. The three of them quickly gave Jack a hug, the four talking all at once to catch up on the events of the past months.

Jack Fain was the studio's lyricist, a very important role for writing the theme-song of the show and the singing parts. Despite working around musicians all the time, he was like Sammy and tended to get away to find some silence to focus.

During the days of the studio, he had shorter, well kept brown hair and usually only let his facial grow into a slight stubble. But of course now was a little different. Now his hair was longer and messed up, a small beard covering the bottom half of his face.

Still, he looked happy to see other people again, happily hugging the three and talking with them. He even waved to Norman, who waved back with a slight smile, never one to join in the hugging.

"I thought you guys were permanently dead since you weren't around at all," Jack stated.

"We thought you were dead, too!" Alison added.

"Henry got us out, we've been living with him, along with Grant, Sammy, and Mr. Drew," Wally quickly explained. "They stayed behind to watch the toons today."

"Glad to hear they got out," Jack said, looking a little relieved. "Did you find the others, yet?"

Everyone froze to stare at him. "Others?" Susie asked curiously.

* * *

 ** _Jack Fain joined the Party!_**

This took way less time to write (but an eternity to remember to post... in my defense, it's been a busy few months), hopefully the next chapter will be the same ^-^.


	10. More New Allies

{~ I finished this chapter on Thanksgiving... and now it's December... where did the time go?~}

* * *

"Here we are."

Following Jack's lead, everyone walked deeper into the heart of the studio and through Bendy Land. As they walked around, they noticed the way that the place seemed more and more cleaned up the further the went. By the time Jack lead them to the door, the place looked almost like a normal house.

All it took was one knock at the metal door before movement was heard on the inside, the door soon opening to reveal a woman and two animals. The woman was a little taller than the other girls, her skin tanned and her hair dark, curly, and pulled up into two ponytails. Her body was a little more on the curvy, plus-sized side, though she was still fairly fit. Her eyes were hidden behind a pair of goggles, though it was still clear she wasn't happy.

Out of the two animals, one was a dog that appeared to be of a similar breed to Boris, but much closer still to a Pit Bull or Rottweiler as it was quite muscular. Bandages covered its chest area, as well as some parts on its legs that had braces to support it better, its left hind leg obviously a prosthetic.

The other animal, a cat, was very similar to Alice color-wise with its white and black fur. There were no bandages covering anywhere, but there was a belt-like collar with a white bow around its neck.

Like the woman, neither animal looked thrilled either.

"What business have you this time, Fain?" the woman asked. "Brutis found your hat, I finished fixing up your area, and Allie chased all rodents out of it and killed the bugs. What else could you need?"

"I need you to listen to me, Lacie" Jack began to explain. He gestured to the group he brought with him as he continued. "They managed to escape and they managed to come back, that means there's a way out of here now!"

"And we'd like to take you guys out of here as well," Henry quickly added.

Lacie looked over the entire group, her face softening into a smile. "Alright," she said. "Come on in."

The group followed her into the room, finding it to be an extensive safe-house, similar to where Henry stayed with Boris when he first returned to the studio. The main room appeared to be like the living/family room, set up with a sofa, a small table with a few books and a tool box on it, and some small cots that the two animals went to lay on. Across from the sofa was another table with one of the TVs from another part of the studio sitting on it. In the center of the room was a pile of beams, both metal and wooded, that looked like they had been put together into a crude attempt at a home gym.

"So there were other survivors after-all?" Lacie asked casually walking to the adjoined kitchen. "That's good, I was beginning to think there was only a few of us left. Anyone hungry? We've got plenty of soup."

"No thanks," Henry answered, politely declining the offer. "This is a really nice place, Ms. Benton, you must have worked hard on it."

"Thanks, I did," Lacie replied. "But I'm still ready to see the outside again if I can. I'm sure Brutis ad Allie are, too, right you two?" she turned to look at the two animals with a smile as they both perked up happily.

.~.~.~.

Hours had passed and Joey still had no progress on his search for Murry. He had taken breaks to look up the families of various members of his former employees, which what want he was supposed to do anyway.

The Franks were still in town, thankfully, that meant Wally would be able to reunite with them fairly easily. The Lawrences had moved to just out of town, which he learned when he found the movie review channel Sammy's brother ran, the older Lawrence sibling mentioning that he was helping his parents move house to a little bit into the country. So far, they were the easiest to find locally. The Polks were always in the more Southern states, as were the Campbells, so they'd be harder to get in contact with.

He glanced up towards the others at the table. It was lunch time, he had helped prepare food, mostly macaroni-and-cheese, not that long ago and now was slowly eating while he was looking up information online.

Everyone else at the table were eating though. All six of the cartoons where happily eating like children, meanwhile Sammy and Grant were showing how impressive their "hand-eye coordination" was for two people who could barely see at all.

"Finally found the Pendles," Joey stated, ending the voice silence in the room. "Of course they live in a big city far away from here."

"So we only have two options of contact so far," Grant began. "We can work with that, it's better than what we had before."

"Three options if we include Sammy's brother," Joey added.

"Which we shouldn't," Sammy muttered.

"We will anyway," Grant countered.

"My family shouldn't be counted at all," Sammy hissed. "They'll never believe any of this!"

"Sammy," Joey interrupted. "It's worth a try. Your family is the only other chance we have next to Wally's, they may be stubborn, but we have to try. _**You**_ have to try. And besides, the plan is to contact our families and do a DNA test to try to prove who we are. Okay?"

"Okay," Sammy agreed quietly.

"In the meantime, Shawn's family moved back to Ireland, so they're not going to be able to help too much," Joey continued, turning back to the computer where he had pulled up a notepad to write down everything he found. "Grant, your family's pretty well 'off the grid', and Thomas isn't much better."

"Henry did mention Linda and their daughter are coming back soon," Grant mentioned.

"Wish we could have gotten a vacation to Disney," Sammy sighed. "I always wanted to go to a theme-park, but my family was always too busy for that kinda thing."

"You did get to go to a theme-park," Joey said defensively. "You were there for Bendy Land!"

"A **_GOOD_** theme-park, preferably _not_ in _that **studio**_!"

"I thought Bendy Land was good."

.~.~.~

The group stayed with Lacie in her safe house for a while before they decided it was time to continue, if they wanted to get home in a timely manor. Lacie and the two animals lead the group to meet more of the survivors.

Most of the other people were formerly Lost Ones, still wandering around the studio on their quest to escape. There were way too many to come home with Henry, but he was able to give them money for a bus ride to a nearby town and help them out of the building before going back to the group.

It was time to find one final person. Bertrum Piedmont. As she promised, Lacie knew exactly where he was. In the Bendy Land theme park the man had built.

"Bertrum!" she called as she lead the group into the giant area the park took up of the building. "Guests!"

A tall man walked out from behind a booth, the familiar mustache of the carousel ghost showing that this was indeed Bertrum Piedmont. It was obvious enough that one of his arms was replaced with that of the Bendy animatronic, judging by the way he was walking his legs might have also been replaced.

"Piedmont came t' me in shambles, asked me t' help fix him up," Lacie explained. "He insisted he could do it on his own-"

"Which I could have," Bertrum interrupted, walking proudly up to the group. "I wasn't helpless, I was perfectly capable of doing it myself, but I thought an extra set of hands would speed it up. "

"And it had nothing to do with the fact you lost an arm?" Lacie asked sarcastically as she rolled her eyes. "And your legs wouldn't work without support?"

"That's why I wanted it done faster," Bertrum stated. He turned to face the group. "Ladies, Gentlemen, I am the great imagineer who's responsible for building this here park!"

"Bertrum, this is a little more important that your project," Lacie interrupted.

"Nothing's more important than-"

"They say they can get us out of here."

Bertrum froze in shock before his face lit up with joy. "That **_is_** good news!"

Henry nodded and stepped forward. "We've gotten a bunch of people out already," he explained. "Grant, Sammy, and..." he paused, questioning if mentioning Joey at the moment was a good idea or not. "The toons are already outside, they're safe at my house... as is Joey."

Bertrum made some form of a scowling look. "Not sure I'd count that as 'safe'," he stated.

"It's okay, I don't think he's going to hurt anyone right now," Henry explained. "Now, if you want to come with us, you're welcome to, in fact, we're all kind of hoping you will."

"As much as I'm not fond of Mister Drew, I'd like that, too," Bertrum agreed.

"Great," Henry smiled brightly at him. "We have a few more things to pick up before we go, you guys are welcome to bring anything else you want to as well, just as long as it's small enough to fit into my van."

.~.~.~.

It was fairly late when they finally arrived back at the house, the neighborhood shrouded in darkness as the van pulled into the driveway again. The second that Henry opened the door, however, the lights from the house flooded the darkness in the immediate vicinity.

The three who stayed behind had moved to the living room, a movie playing in the background that the toons were watching. "We're back," Henry called, getting everyone's attention. "And we brought some friends."

Jack, Lacie, and Bertrum stepped forwards, looking around while Brutis and Allie raced to meet the other toons. Jack's face lit up and he ran over to the couch, wrapping his arms around the other musician. "Sammy!" he cried excitedly.

"Jack?!" Sammy asked, loosely bringing his own arms around the songwriter as he returned to hug. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again, I thought you were dead dead."

"I thought you were too," Jack replied.

"Hey, Bernie," Joey greeted, waving too the imagineer.

"Don't call me that," Bertrum growled.

Henry walked over to the couch as well, holding out a small case to Grant. "We found your glasses," he explained.

Grant smiled and thanked him as he opened the case, putting his glasses on.

Susie and Alison ran passed with Lacie, telling her how they'd show her their room.

"There is one more thing I should mention," Henry began, turning to Jack and Bertrum. "My wife and daughter are going to be home soon. In two days."

* * *

{~ Why was Bertrum so difficult to introduce?! I meant to finish that chapter sooner but then Bertrum decided to be more complicated that Jack or Lacie, and there was no way I was leaving the Lost Ones there so I had to decide how to get them out as well.

Snowwing, I guess this does kinda update once a month currently. There was originally a schedule but now it's become kinda unpredictable. Still, hopefully now that they're out of the studio completely, fingers crossed the next chapter will be finished a lot faster ^-^

Thanks for patiently waiting between updates, everyone ^-^ ~}


	11. Family Returns

{{Merry Christmas! Guess who's been sick for a year thanks to a medication gone wrong. Anyway, this chapter had been written last December, before stuff started happening. Aside from previous stuff, my laptop had started to break down after, like 6 years, but I just got my new laptop recently~! My last one can, hopefully, be revived with a bit of work. Enjoy ^-^}}

* * *

It was earlier in the year when Linda had to leave for a business trip in Florida. She asked Henry to accompany her, but he declined as he had some work of his own to do, including visiting Joey Drew. She did, however, bring their daughter along with her as she knew it'd be a fun trip for her and she had relatives who could take her sight-seeing anyway. After the work part of the trip was done, they were going to Walt Disney World.

Several months later, they were set to return home, none the wiser to what Henry had been busy and putting up with for the majority of their trip.

Henry was panicking the morning they were set to return, making sure the place was a clean as possible and trying to figure out what to do with their impromptu guests, as he had hoped before he could have gotten them reunited with their families and out of the house by this time, not that he didn't enjoy their company.

Everyone else helped as well as they could; dusting, vacuuming, mopping, what ever needed to be done. At least with the large amount of people there, it was finished faster, but that still didn't calm Henry's nerves.

"How am I going to explain this?!" he asked at breakfast. "I have a house full of 3 women, 9 men, 5 animals, and the Butcher Gang, all of whom were not here when they left!"

"I'm sure they'll understand if you tell them the truth," Susie offered.

"All of you were pronounced legally deceased, it's going to be a little more difficult than that," Henry sighed.

"I'm sure it'll be fine," Joey assured him. "Just tell them that we'll be here just until we get back on our feet, backup plan can always be moving in with the Franks and Lawrences."

"I don't know about that, but I do know the best way to go about things is always the truth," Susie added, reiterating her previous sentience. "Just explain what happened and we'll all promise to behave and help around the house."

"I hope you're right," Henry sighed.

.~.~.~.

It was around noon when the sound of the door opening sounded into the the house, stirring everyone's attention towards it. "Henry, we're home," a woman called. At the same time of her voice echoing the house, the sound of small feet running around also began.

Everyone had been in the kitchen making lunch at the time, but soon most of them rushed towards the entrance to the kitchen in anticipation while Henry went to reunite with his wife and daughter.

Only a minute passed after Henry left before a little girl ran into the kitchen, smiling widely at the group of people. "Mommy! Mommy, come check this out!" she called to her mother.

"Linda, there's something I need to tell you," Henry began awkwardly as he and Linda headed towards the kitchen. The two walked in and Linda's face froze with shock at the amount of people in the small room.

By this point, the little girl was happily playing with the toons in their animal forms on the floor. If she could tell that something was odd, which she probably could, she didn't care. Lacie stood behind her, telling her their names about them.

"Henry... Darling, what is going on?" Linda asked curiously, turning towards her husband.

Henry sighed. "It's... kinda a long story," he began. "Basically... Remember why I agreed to stay behind?"

"Yeah, your friend sent you an invitation to something."

"My friend who was missing for several years and considered dead," Henry added. "Remember the studio I used to work at?"

Linda looked concerned. "Henry," she began. "What are you getting at?"

Henry sighed again and gestured to the group of people in their kitchen. "These are all employees of the studio, including Joey Drew. Turns out, no one was as dead as we all thought they were."

"Pretty sure we were dead though," Wally muttered to Sammy.

"I don't even remember how many times I died," Sammy agreed.

Linda started to laugh softly. "Cute joke, honey," she said, before turning to look at everyone, her face falling into a serious look of deep concern. "Although... the resemblance to your old coworkers is amazing," she added.

"I'm not joking," Henry explained. "I know it sounds crazy, but these are my old coworkers."

Linda stared around in shock. "You're serious," she whispered.

"Yes, Mrs. Stein, we're all being serious," Joey spoke up. "It's been a long time since last I laid eyes on such a beautiful woman, and might I say, it's truly an honor to meet my best friend's wife again after so long."

"Joey," Henry hissed.

"Once a charmer, always a charmer," Susie muttered.

"Jerk," Alison agreed.

"Oh, my God," Linda gasped. "It's true."

"Can they stay, mommy, daddy?" the little girl asked.

"I've been letting them live here for a while now," Henry explained. "As long as it's okay with your mother, I'm happy to keep letting them stay."

"And we promise to keep helping around the house!" Susie added. "We'll help in any way we can."

"Well, I suppose it's alright," Linda agreed, smiling softly at all her new housemates.

"Yay!" the little girl cheered, hopping up in excitement.

.~.~.~.

A couple months passed, the holiday season quickly began. Henry and his family went to see relatives for Thanksgiving, but that didn't stop everyone else from celebrating in the house while they were gone.

Then, while Henry had been at work at the new studio he worked for, Linda and their daughter left early in the morning, surprising everyone when they woke up. But the real surprise came when they returned with a new Christmas tree.

"There was a sale," Linda explained, setting the box with the tree down next to the doorway. "50% off, I thought we should take advantage of that before the rush."

"Uncle Wally! Uncle Sammy!" the little girl called, running into the family room where the two, along with Norman and Thomas, were setting up some video game supplies.

"Hey, you're back," Wally greeted with a wave.

The little girl hopped onto the couch, sitting next to Sammy and pressing a small decoration into his hand. "Uncle Sammy, check this out!" she told him. "We found some textured decorations so you can enjoy Christmas, too!"

Sammy smiled, wrapping an arm around her shoulders for a quick hug. "That's very sweet of you," he told her. "Thank you. Now, would you like to help Wally and Shawn test out the games?"

"Yeah!"

Linda walked in, looking around the room with a smile as her eyes landed on the corner where the games were being set up. "Your studio's coming along nicely," she stated. "I especially like the lights and the posters on the wall."

"You gotta see this, then," Wally said with a grin. He held up a small remote and pressed a button, the lights on the wall fading from a soft white to red and green. "Mood lights!" he proclaimed.

The little girl clapped in approval of the lights.

"They're lovely," Linda agreed. She turned back to Wally. "So, how has getting contact with your family been going?"

"I'm, uh, workin' on it," Wally explained, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"I would think your family would be excited to learn you're alive, it would be a true Christmas Miracle to them."

"That's true," Wally agreed with a nod. "I'll try soon. It's just kinda scary, y'know?"

"I understand," Linda assured him. "I just think everyone's families would be very happy to know everyone's alive, especially since I'm sure they're missing you all around this time of year." She turned back towards her daughter, who was playing with a game controller that Sammy had handed her, the musician explaining the game to her softly. "In the mean time," she began. "Who wants to help put up and decorate the tree?!"

The little girl hopped off the couch excitedly. "Me!" she cried

* * *

{{Like I said, this was written back in last December. Thank you, past me, for writing a couple chapters before things started to happen. Basically, I'd been put on a new medication earlier this year, right after being sick, and the med left me with a kinda-bad fever for another 6 months. At the end of July, I finally figured it out and stopped the med "cold turkey", which also left me sick (The medication was Singular BTW, which some people do amazing on and some do horribly on). After that, my laptop quit, and writing on a tablet isn't easy.

You'd think after a medical filled year, I would be here as a break from the medical world. Lol, nope. YouTube's been recommending Amputee videos to me and it's been interesting to learn about them (and helpful for writing this)

Anyway, up to Chapter 15 in writing this and I have some bonus content if anyone's interested. I'll be updating daily to close out the year since I just need to force myself to edit.}}


	12. Calling Family

"It's beautiful," Susie stated as she walked into the living room, carrying a tray with several cups of hot chocolate that she sat down on the coffee table.

The little girl finished wrapping the tree skirt around the tree, with no help from the cat-toons who kept trying to lay down on the soft material. She backed up and smiled up at the tree

Susie picked up a couple cups and sat down on the couch next to Sammy, passing him a cup. "Where's Wally?" she asked.

Sammy grinned. "That should be a new look-and-find kid's book," he stated. He took a sip before explaining. "He's calling his parents, Norman and Thomas are on standby encase he needs help. This is a pretty big deal for him, hope it goes well."

"It went fine," Wally spoke, walking into the room and handing Henry's phone back to him before going to the couch. "Aww, you really do care~," he teased, nudging Sammy gently.

"Shut up," Sammy muttered.

"We're all really happy for you," Henry told him. "Including Sammy, no matter how much he tries to deny anything."

"Thanks," Wally turned to him with a grin. "My folks said they want to come visit," he added seriously. "I said they could, hope that's okay."

"Of course it's okay," Linda assured him. "Your parents are perfectly welcome to visit if they want to."

Wally gave her a soft smile as a thank you before turning back to Sammy. "One step closer to a new channel," he stated.

"I still don't understand how I got roped into this," Sammy sighed. "But, still, I really am happy for you."

Wally grinned and wrapped an arm around the smaller male's shoulders.

.~.~.~.

A couple days had passed, by this point the entire house had been heavily decorated by residents and the Franks were due to arrive soon.

Late afternoon, as promised, the Franks arrived. The couple were already joyful enough to visit the friend of their son, but they were even more excited to see Wally again, the two both immediately running up to hug him.

"You're Uncle Wally's parents?" Henry's daughter asked curiously after the family spent a few minutes talking too fast.

"Yep, these are my folks," Wally answered for them while his parents continued to gush over how cute it was that she called him 'Uncle Wally'. He turned back to his parents with a smile. "She calls us all her aunts and uncles," he explained softly. He glanced back to the little girl. "Why don't you go hang out with Sammy again?" he suggested, the little girl smiling in excitement and running into the living room.

"Oh my gosh," Wally's mother stated, her eyes following the little girl over to the musician on the couch that the girl ran to. "A Lawrence... It's true, you all really are alive!"

Sammy turned his attention towards them at the mention of his last name. "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Franks," he greeted with a wave.

"Samuel Lawrence, your parents would have a cow if they knew you were living here, like this," Mrs. Franks said, walking over and sitting down on the couch as well.

"My parents would have a cow no matter what after what happens," Sammy added with a laugh. "It's nice to s- hear you again."

Mrs. Franks caught the slight sound of the first word he was going to say and she quickly caught on that something was wrong. Gently, she reached towards him, taking his chin into her hand so she could look at him better. "Oh my God," she whispered. "Oh, Samuel, I'm so sorry-"

"I'm fine, Mrs. Franks," Sammy cut her off. "I've gotten used to it, it's not so bad. I can still hear. I honestly miss walking more than sight right now."

Mrs. Franks glanced down at his legs for a second before look at his face again. "Have you called your family yet?" she asked in concern.

"You know my family, they'll never believe it," Sammy explained.

"The Lawrences always did have a reputation for being stubborn," Mr. Franks agreed.

"Which is why Sammy's been puttin' it off this whole time," Wally added. "C'mon, I called my folks, you should try callin' yours."

Sammy made a face at him. "They wouldn't believe it even if I showed up at their house!"

"How about this? How about we call with you, for support and to help yell at them?" Mr. Franks suggested.

Wally grinned. "Yeah, I've always wanted to yell at your parents!"

Sammy groaned in defeat.

.~.~.~.

 _/"Hello, you have reached the Lawrence Residence. To whom am I speaking to?"/_

He swallowed anxiously at his father's voice. "D-dad?" he stuttered. "F-father, it's me... Samuel."

 _/"Nice try, joker,"/_ his father sighed. _/"Well, you had your fun-"/_

"Hold it right there, Lawrence!" Mr. Franks called, taking the phone out of Sammy's hands. He knew what was happening from the look on Sammy's face. He pressed a button, turning on speaker phone. "Hello, Mr. Lawrence," he started civilly. "This is Mr. and Mrs. Franks, we were here visiting our son and decided to help yours."

 _/"...Franks, whatever kind joke this is, it's a cruel one."/_

"It's not a joke, we're being completely serious," Mr. Franks cut him off. "Your son is right here, alive and -well- recovering. Don't believe us? All the missing people from that studio are going to get DNA tested, we'll call you with the details when the appointment's set up, you should come."

 _/"Alright, we'll play along with your game for now,"/_ Mr. Lawrence agreed, begrudgingly. _/"Farewell, Franks."/_

"And a pleasant evenin' to you, too," Mrs. Franks said as her husband hung up the phone.

"Now, how about your brother?" Mr. Franks turned to Sammy again.

"Henry's going to e-mail him," Sammy explained. "I just hope they'll actually believe it..."

* * *

{~Just giving myself some Wally and Sammy bro-stuff, don't mind me... ~}


	13. News and DNA Testing

"Rumors are spreading like wildfire about the missing employees from Joey Drew's studio. The case has gone unsolved for years and now people have reported seeing the missing people show up online.

"There have been convincing images of them posted to new social media pages, claiming that they're finally free from a prison they've been in since their disappearances.

"Again, these photos are incredibly convincing, showing not only what we can easily tell are, indeed, the missing people, but also how they've aged over the years," the TV screen switched from the images of the headline to the news anchors talking about it.

"Yeah, but at the same time, everyone's still wondering if it's an elaborate hoax," one of them said, agreeing and adding onto what the first said. "We have the technology to do that sort of thing but the real question is why would someone fake that? And that's the question that has people believing that the missing people are, indeed, back."

"Yeah," the first agreed. "With those facts in mind, look at this video one of the former employees who'd left before the disappearances took. This video shows his daughter listening to who appears to be Samuel Lawrence and Susan Campbell singing a song from a Disney movie, Alison Pendle later joining in. This clip is what's convinced people the most that these guys are really back."

The video clip should up on screen, obviously filmed by a phone. The little girl in the video seemed over joyed to hear the two, later three, people singing 'a Whole New World' from Aladdin, later switching to 'Prince Ali' at the girl's request.

"So as you can see in the video," the news people continued, the screen returning to their faces, "It doesn't seem like an amateur video edit and the voices, according to fans, sound exactly like the three. Are they really back from seemingly the dead? No one's sure yet, but we'll update you if or when we get the answers."

The woman watching the TV gently took the remote from her husband's slacked hand, the man's face still glued to the screen in surprise, and rewound the footage, pausing on the clip of the three singing. "It really does look like him," she stated after a minute of silence.

"It does," her husband agreed. "But that's impossible. He's been gone for years."

"Maybe we'll be some of the few people who get to see a miracle," the woman said softly. "The miracle of getting our son back."

.~.~.~.

"About to leave for DNA testing," Shawn said in the video on their shared Instagram account. "Wish luck for these losers. I won't need it but be good to them."

"Wow," Susie called, the video frame zooming to focus in on her in the back of the group. "Rude, Shawn," she said but didn't seem too upset about it. In fact, a smile was across her face as she laughed lightly.

.~.~.~.

Nothing came to Wally's mind that could have tasted worse than a cotton swab, not even ink… okay maybe ink and maybe bacon soup after having nothing else for years. Thankfully, it was a quick thing and the nurse put it in a container with his name marked on it for studying.

For legal purposes, they had actual doctors or nurses doing the DNA testing, even if they would have preferred to get kits and do it themselves. Thankfully, it was at a walk-in clinic, where they were just trying to get the tests done right and quickly and wouldn't be too concerned about everything else just yet.

"The results should be in in about a week and the lab will send a copy of them to the doctors that have been set up as your primary ones," one of the nurses in the room explained to the group. "You'll get a copy as well. The doctors will likely discuss the results with you at your check-up so feel free to ask them any questions you may have after today. With that finished, you all should be good to go."

Henry thanked the nurses and soon the group headed back to his house.

.~.~.~.

A week later, Henry's daughter came running inside with the mail, which looked like it would come flying out of her arms with the sheer amount of it. She ran up to her mother, who was currently sitting on the living room couch with Susie, Sammy sitting on a chair brushing one of the toon-cats nearby, and handed her the mail.

"Thank you," Linda said softly before looking at her. "You didn't wear a coat when you went outside, did you?" she asked with a sigh.

"I wasn't out there very long, I didn't see a need to," the girl answered. "So what is all of it?!"

"Well, some cards, bills, junk mail- Ah, the DNA test results for everyone," her mother said, skimming through the stack.

"So we have papers that say what we already know?" Wally asked with a laugh as he walked in, leaning against the frame of the room.

"Hopefully," Susie replied, opening her results.

"Unless the ink somehow changed our DNA," Sammy said.

"Which it didn't," Susie told him, grinning as she held up her results.

Wally rushed over and took the one addressed to him, tearing it open and skimming it. "Ah, yeah," he cheered.

Meanwhile, Linda was opening cards and a few of the results for the others. "Confirmation for Samuel Lawrence, Alison Pendle, Joseph Drew, Norman Polk," she read a few of them. "Looks like everyone's confirmed. I'll take these over to Henry at the office to get them copied and sent out to everyone's families."

An hour later, the results had been copied, the copies mailed out, and the doctors had already called and set up appointments.

"Why do you need to go to the doctor?" Henry's daughter asked once the group rescued from the studio had talked everything through.

"We've been missing for years, the doctors just want to make sure we're okay," Susie explained to her.

"And some of us were on medications and already had health concerns," Joey added.

"What health concerns and why medications?" the girl asked.

"Well, my leg for one, I used to take pain meds and muscle relaxants," Joey answered. "Sammy and Lacie used to take meds as well."

"Which you won't need to worry about much until you're older," Lacie cut in. "Let's just say our meds regulate things better for us, me with my body and Sammy with his… focus?"

"We'll go with that," Sammy agreed, not wanting to go into mental illness talk with a child. Again, not until she was a little older.

.~.~.~.

Shawn held the phone in front of him to post another update video on their shared account. "We got the DNA test results back, positive matches on all of us," he explained. "We go to see the doctors in a few days. A lot of us are pretty nervous, I think Sammy's especially nervous what with his parents coming to it and his anxiety hasn't been the best lately. Lacie, I think, is almost excited about it, she said something about finally getting the meds she needs again."

Shawn laughed a little to lighten the serious mood. "I'm not nervous, obviously. But, wish us luck, guys."

* * *

{I had to google how to spell some words and some people's last names and learned that I apparently missed a novel at some point? Also, I was curious if the novel told appearances of characters and pulled up Sammy's bio on the wiki and: _Dude!_ That's a whole new level of weird!

Also, the Lawrence family will be making appearances, like the Franks, but mostly to further the story. They're very much so around in the next chapter and will probably make another appearance soon enough, haven't written that part yet, lol ^-^.}


	14. The Lawrences and the Hospital

{Notice: As you can tell from the title, there is a hospital in this and medical stuff is talked about but not in detail, just mentioned. If that makes you uncomfortable at all, feel free to skip to the next chapter, which is bonus content coming tomorrow about the Franks and Lawrences / Wally and Sammy meet, because... bros.}

* * *

"A letter arrived from that Henry Stein fellow, the man who claims to have found our son," the woman said, shuffling through the mail. She opened it up and began to read it, dropping it on the table within seconds.

"What is it?" her husband asked in concern.

"It's true," she whispered. "Sammy…"

The man grabbed the papers and began to read as well. "The appointment's tomorrow… I'll call work and schedule a day off," he said, standing up from his chair at the table.

"I'll start getting things ready in a minute," she said, grabbing her own cell phone and going through the contacts until she found her first-born. She had to tell him the news first.

.~.~.~.

When he'd gotten the email from some guy who knew his younger brother, he'd been skeptical, especially when it said his brother was alive and had been found. Like most, he'd given up hope years ago.

Then he'd gotten the call from his mother telling him they actually seem to have found Sammy and that he should come to the appointment to see him if possible.

While he was late by quite a while, having been told to come any time that day, they'd be there all day, it hadn't taken that long for the oldest of the Lawrence siblings to arrive at the hospital after he was contacted, his wife and their kids with him. Doubt was still heavy in his mind that his brother was alive after so long, but hope was what made him continue. If it was true, he wanted his brother to meet his family.

While he wasn't surprised to find his parents in the waiting room, he was surprised to find an entire group of other people waiting with them, especially the Franks family.

"You're just in time," his mother spoke softly to him. "He's just finished with the surgery."

He had not been filled in on his missing brother's health and was more concerned now. "What happened? Why did he need surgery?" he asked, walking over and sitting down next to his mother. The second he sat down, his daughter trotted over and climbed into his lap, her mother sitting next to him with her baby brother.

"His legs were very badly damaged, as well as a crudely done amputation, the doctors had to do a second amputation," his mother explained, looking like she was aging ten years with worry.

"There's another thing," his father added, clearing his throat to get everyone's attention. To his surprise, the entire group of others were, indeed, there with his parents, since they also looked at him.

His mother pulled out an envelope and handed it to him. The front was addressed to his parents, the return address being from the man who emailed him and had red letters reading "results inside". He opened it up carefully, despite how his parents had already torn it open and read the results, and pulled out the note.

It was the results of the DNA test, saying it was true that his brother was alive and a medical note was attached, listing what all the doctors had been looking into.

 _"Acute memory loss, legs cut off below the knees, pinky fingers cut off, blind."_

The rest of the note mentioned some acute malnourishment and dehydration, but his mind was too horrified about the first list of discoveries.

His brother was alive but very badly hurt and could have been near death without medical help.

"How did this happen?" he asked, looking at his parents.

"We don't really know," his father answered. "But I take it they _do_ know," he added, gesturing the others, who all waved lightly.

"Let's just leave it at a mad-man used your brother and the rest of us as lab rats," one of the group spoke up.

He recognized the male as being one of Sammy's friends, Jack maybe.

"We were trapped for years," one of the girls explained. "After so long, the effects started to add up. Be it that some of us don't remember what happened there, some of us have injuries, or even that we know people have probably died there. For the most part, we made it out more-or-less alright given the circumstances."

A doctor walked over and spoke softly to his parents before leaving.

"He said we can see him now," his mother said, standing up. The rest of the group followed the Lawrences to the room.

The beeping of the heart monitor echoed softly, as well as other sounds of machinery. In the middle was a bed, Sammy still sound asleep under the covers.

His formerly dyed hair was now completely black again, longer than before as well as it cascaded around his head onto the pillow. Aside from his hair being longer and his body seeming thinner, it looked as if he hadn't aged a single day since the last time anyone had seen him.

He held his daughter up carefully so she could see as well, given as the little girl was curious and attempting to look. She seemed surprised at first but then smiled. "I like his hair," she said, as if that was the most important thing.

"He does, too," one of the men in the group added, smiling back at her. "I have a daughter around your age, she loves when he lets her play with his hair.

"Sammy's been living with Mr. Stein," his mother explained to him. "We're going to ask him if he wants to move back to us when he wakes up."

Henry Stein looked at her in almost disappointed for a second. "Joey should be waking up soon," he said, getting the group of friends to look at him. "We should go see him and give the family some time."

Both parents thanked him politely and talked briefly with the group while they left, the older brother staying by his brother's side.

"I can't believe this," he breathed. "He's been missing for a decade… we all thought he was dead but now he's here."

"Are we gonna have to do more Christmas shopping?" his daughter asked, causing everyone to laugh softly.

"Not necessarily," his mother said, walking over and taking her from his arms to give her a hug. "Because Grandpa and I are going to buy him a lot of things already. But I'm sure he'd appreciate it, sweetheart."

A soft groan alerted them that the anesthesia was wearing off and they all looked to see Sammy tiredly moving.

"Sammy?" his mother whispered, she and everyone else going to stand by his side. "Sammy, it's me, your mother."

"Kaa?" he asked, turning to look in her direction though he was blind and wasn't really looking at her.

"It's really him," his brother breathed in joy. After so many years, his little brother was finally back.

* * *

{'Kaa', according to a quick google search because I haven't taken Japanese in years, means 'mom'. If it's wrong, sorry.

I'm hoping to write a chapter about the toons tomorrow, it's probably gonna be short but hopefully cute.

Anyway, thanks for reading everyone ^-^ }


	15. Lawrence and Franks first meet (Bonus)

{How the Lawrences and the Franks met in history. Sammy's and Wally's ancestors interact, forming the relationship their families have over the years until the current generation}

* * *

It had happened first in the previous century, nearly a hundred years prior to today, that a Frank and a Lawrence first had the displeasure of crossing paths. Things went fine at first but then, then they took a sour turn.

The man nearly dodged the flying paperweight that adorned the other's desk, a smirk plastered on his face as he reveled in the sudden anger of his co-worker.

"You imbecile!" the one at the desk marked 'Lawrence' growled out. "Have you no idea of what you're doing?!"

"I do," Franks replied casually. "You need to lighten up, Lawrence. The great war's ended, we're in times of peace, might as well have a good time and enjoy it!"

"Would you mind doing that during your leisure time instead of on the job and thus interrupting my work?" Lawrence replied, sitting down at his desk again and tidying it up like nothing had happened.

"I'd've thought you'd be happy about the war being over, since it's the whole reason you're here," Franks stated.

Lawrence sighed. It was true, he and his family had come to America in the beginning of the Great War in an attempt to escape it. Though they were Europeans, the Americans had still welcomed their work and, thankfully,they were not drafted into the war when America joined.

"Of course I'm pleased," he explained. "I simply have work to do, as do you. And thanks to your tom-foolery, I now have to redo some of my work. If I have to do overtime, you will hear of it."

Franks just shrugged and walked away from the bitter man.

Of course, that wasn't the first incident between the families, and it wouldn't be the last, merely one of the earliest.

.~.~.~.

Flash forward nearly a century to when the current generation first ran into each other. It started when Joey Drew first started the infamous studio.

"I can't do this anymore!" the old composure roared as he stormed out of the music compartment.

Joey let out a soft groan before forcing his signature smile. "What seems to be the problem?"

"These fools you call a band, that's what!" the man barked, gesturing horribly to the band members. "It would take a miracle to make good music with such… such idiots!"

"Not that his music's any better," Wally muttered, keeping his voice lower than the sound of his broom while he cleaned.

The composure continued to leave the building, slamming the door behind him with a call of his quitting.

Wally waited until he heard the man's car rev to life and leave the lot to speak. "Good riddance," he stated, earning a look from both Joey and Henry, who'd come to see what the commotion was about. "What? I's not like he's any good, anyone's better at that job than him."

"Unfortunately, we needed that song to stay on time," Joey groaned, pinching his nose.

"Wally's right," Henry spoke up. "We only hired him as a temporary one until we could find who we really wanted, now's our chance to contact that ones we were thinking on."

.~.~.~.

A couple weeks later, Joey was leading the new hire around, the young man being the new composure. It had turned out that he was hired behind Henry's back, a last minute situation during which Joey had found the musician's work online and hired him on the spot. Even though he wasn't talked to about the hiring, Henry stilled agreed since the young man was, indeed, good at his job.

Wally turned to see Joey leading the newbie towards him, feeling a little more tired but still interested when he saw Joey wave to him.

"Wally!" Joey called. "Wally, come meet our new music director!"

Wally walked closer, watching the man who followed behind their employer.

The musician was pretty small, probably around the same size of Susie, Wally noted. He had shoulder-length black hair, a red streak covering his right eye. At first glance, Wally could tell the other was at least somewhat oriental, though he was never the best at telling apart different ethnicities.

"This is Samuel Lawrence," Joey explained, gesturing to the newbie.

Wally nearly choked and quickly brought his hand up to cover his name-tag, an action that didn't go unnoticed by Samuel, who was kind enough not to comment on it. Wally grinned a friendly smile. "Why cello there," he joked.

Samuel gave him a disappointed look and turned away, pointing to a hallway. "And the offices are over here, right?" he asked, ignoring Wally completely in true Lawrence fashion when presented with a joke.

"Uh, right," Joey answered, looking a bit confused as to what had happened. "I'll show you your office."

"Nice meetin' ya, kiddo!" Wally called as the two left.

"Wally," Joey called later that day. "What was all that about earlier?" he asked.

"I dunno what you're talking about," Wally replied.

Joey just gave him a look but didn't press on. "Well, just so you know, he's actually around the same age as you, so maybe don't call him a kid."

.~.~.~.

Wally was careful to avoid Samuel, or Sammy as he was frequently called, for the most part, hoping not to tick him off or anything.

That didn't mean he didn't get in a fight with someone else.

While it was rare that he got in a real fight, he prided himself on being able to hold his own. That being said, never go up against a musician, especially a wind-player. Their higher lung-capacity was giving them the upper hand, their strength only making things worse.

Wally just barely managed to dodge one blow before another one entered his vision, along with something in the corner. He watched Sammy walk over to Norman and speak to him, gesturing to the fight in the middle of the room.

He was already on the floor when he heard yelling above him.

"Alright, break it up!" Sammy yelled, stepping between the angry brass player and the janitor.

"He started it," the brass player growled. Wally would have liked to say the man had lied, but he wanted to get his jaw into place again first.

"I don't give a flying **** who started it!" Sammy cried, glaring at the man with full force and causing everyone in the room to back off. He stood still in the silent room of stunned people, all of whom stared at him as if he'd bite their heads off. "Now then," he began, "it's clear to me that you're not busy enough if you decided to spend your time fighting."

The brass player shook his head and started to explain before he was stopped when Sammy held up a hand, returning to stunned silence.

"Scales, all of them, five times each, now," Sammy said as he pointed at the brass player. "If you finish too quickly and still find yourself bored, do ten more."

The brass player stuttered before turning to the music room, promptly getting started. Everyone else began to slowly return to their jobs, still surprised at the outburst. They hadn't seen much of Sammy yet, let alone see him angry in the slightest.

Wally slipped out while everyone was leaving, going to sit on the stairs outside the rear entrance of the building.

It wasn't long before he heard footsteps walking towards him, expecting Susie or someone.

"So," the voice of Sammy began, making the janitor nearly jump. "What does a painter do when he gets cold?"

Wally looked at him in confusion as the other sat down next to him. Briefly, he wondered if they had an ill painter in the building. "I… don't know…?" he uttered.

To his surprise, Sammy looked at him with a smile. "He puts on another coat," he ended.

Wally was shocked but then grinned and laughed lightly. "Didn't know you had a sense of humor," he stated.

"Well, you seemed upset, so I thought I'd at least try," Sammy replied. "Norman told me what happened back there, seems like the brass was ticked and you just happened to be there at the wrong time."

"You're… you're a lot nicer than I expected," Wally admitted.

"Why? Because I'm a Lawrence and you're a Franks?"

"How'd you-?"

"I read your name tag before you hid it," Sammy replied. "I'm not like my family, I don't understand their long-lasting hatred of yours. So far, you haven't done anything to warrant my hatred…. Aside from that 'cello' thing."

Wally grinned. "I that that was funny."

"Stupid is what it was," Sammy replied, though he didn't look at all mad about it. He checked his phone and stood up. "I gotta go, Joey, Henry, and I are supposed to talk about the schedule in ten minutes."

Wally stood up and followed him inside. "I got work to do anyway," he stated. "For a Lawrence, you're not half-bad."

"For a Franks, your jokes are," Sammy replied, flashing him a quick smirk before leaving completely.

* * *

{Bonus content from the past. Tomorrow, for the last chapter of the year, we see the toons... ^-^}


	16. While Humans are away, the Toons Play

{While the humans are away, the toons will play...}

* * *

 _Earlier that morning…_

"Don't open the doors, especially to strangers, and don't answer the phone. The phone is only for emergencies, no prank calls, _Bendy_ , and no ordering pizza or take out, _Boris_ ," Henry went through the list to the crowd of toons, some of which were at least pretending to pay attention to him.

"He's at it again," Alison sighed.

"If only Linda didn't decide to do some early morning shopping after dropping her off for school," Susie agreed. Linda had brought her and Henry's daughter to school already that morning so she could do some Christmas shopping for her. "I think she could have driven us, too."

"There's plenty of pre-made food in the fridge as well as sandwich supplies, please, don't cook, I know none of you can cook. Fir-" Henry was cut off before he could finish the word.

"First aid kit is in the hall bathroom closet, they know," Sammy interjected. "Listen, I don't want to go through with this but I'd rather not spend all day listening to your safety list either, can we go already?"

"Alright, hang on," Henry sighed in agreement. "One more thing, I'm trusting you toons to watch TV and YouTube and stay out of trouble! I mean it!"

"Yeah, yeah, we get it," Bendy piped up, turning from a distracted black cat to the little devil. "I promise we won't cause trouble," he said with a grin, his hand crossing his fingers behind his back.

Henry didn't believe him and could definitely tell he was lying but didn't argue, just gave him a knowing look and turned towards everyone else. "We'll probably be there all day so if anyone wants to catch up on their reading, it's a good time for it."

Grant merely smiled and showed a scientific book about numbers he'd been reading through, everyone else looked tired at the sight of it.

Meanwhile, Bertrum was reading about theme parks and their attractions, like Disney World or Land, Universal, and such. He insisted it was to catch up with what all he missed in the past decade, but everyone figured he just liked reading about the attractions.

"We're going now," Henry announced, turning back to the toons. "Be good," he added. "We'll see you later."

"See ya!" "Bye!" and other such words were called from the toons as the humans left.

Bendy grinned. Time to see what he could do without getting into too much trouble.

.~.~.~.

Allie was relaxing in the window, laying on her back letting the white fur on her stomach soak up the sunlight and the heat. She could hear some cartoon playing, one she knew wasn't their cartoon, and smiled. Though she was trying to sleep, she welcomed such noises.

"Lemme see that," Bendy said.

She did not welcome that sound.

She rolled over onto her legs again to watch as Bendy took the laptop from the Butcher Gang, annoyed complaints uttered from the three even though he ignored them.

"You'll like this," he insisted. "See, I heard that some of the humans ran their own channels, I thought I'd be fun to look them up!"

That didn't sound too bad, so Allie curled into a ball to attempt further rest.

With a push of a button, loud music started blaring from the computer.

Allie groaned and hopped down from her perch, going to the kitchen where she had just caught a whiff of food. Of course, when she arrived, Boris was there making a sandwich happily, Brutus just eating the pieces to make one individually.

Allie purred and meowed happily as she leaped onto a chair at the table, turning into her toon form. "Pass me some of that?" she asked.

Boris looked a little upset about sharing food but pushed the supplies her way nonetheless.

She made herself a sandwich, which both wolfs probably would have laughed at with how mini it was, and started back towards the living room. The sound was lowered and back to a cartoon, Bendy must have gotten bored… that wasn't actually that good a sign.

The sound of clanging ornaments caught her attention. She ran to the tree along with the other toons who were just as curious and concerned.

At the top of the tree was a white and black cat.

"Alice?" Allie asked. "What are you doing up there?"

"Where else would an angel be?" Alice replied.

Allie groaned, even if she was a little amused.

.~.~.~.

Alice purred happily. The house was her kingdom as far as she was concerned and she could see at least most of a room fairly well from her spot on the top of the tree.

The thrill of being so high up and surveying her surroundings, the colorful lights against her fur, what was there not to love about climbing the Christmas tree? She could and, if she had her way, would stay up there all day.

The sound of a can opening ever so softly from the kitchen alerted her, but she was not going to give in to the temptation that easily. Even if it smelled like a mixture of chicken and tuna…

She could swear she wasn't hungry a second ago…

She began her descent down the tree as fast as her tiny legs could carry her, scurrying to the kitchen and hiding herself against the wall to see what was going on.

Bendy had turned into his toon form to open a cat of cat food and was now a cat again as he ate from the can. His back was turned to her.

She pounced and landed on his back, causing him to jump. She wasted no time in getting to the food while he landed next to her, 'nomming' sounds happily escaping her throat.

"Two can play at that game," she heard Bendy laugh.

A single claw hooked the edge of the can and it was ripped from her view, Bendy happily eating again. The game was on.

She stretched and yawned, pretending not to care or notice the food. Gently as as elegantly as she could, she began to leave the room. Then, when she knew Bendy didn't expect her, she raced back and pulled the can closer to herself, immediately taking a bite of food.

Bendy's nose suddenly stopped hers from getting back into the can as he bit down on the rim, picked it up, and carried it out of the room.

Alice quickly began to follow him, attempting to snatch the can back every time she got close enough.

They ran passed a child-sized tea-table where the Butcher Gang were casually eating finger sandwiches and drinking milk, the gang watching them.

They passed the box that Allie was napping in, the other cat waking up and watching them before walking to the kitchen. If they paid enough attention to her, they would have heard another can opening as she got her own food, but they were too caught up in their game of chase.

The chase finally ended in the living room when Bendy ducked underneath the coffee table and began guarding the can.

Boris and Brutus were both watching a movie intently before this happened, but neither of them cared too much about fight over a can of cat food. Why would they? They had sandwiches and a movie.

"Humph," Alice huffed as she turned away from Bendy and began to trot back towards the tree. She'd gotten multiple mouth-fulls, she was ready for a nap.

.~.~.~.

It was evening by the time the humans returned, and it was noticeable that not all of them came back.

Boris was curled up on the couch, sleeping in dog form. Allie was snoozing in her box again. Brutus was laying amongst the remains of a chew-toy that said it was for strong chewers but obviously had lied on the packaging.

The Butcher Gang were hanging out in their little tent-house, watching the humans return. They didn't really talk, but they did still groan vague messages to each other to convey their concern over the missing humans.

"We're home," Henry called, the sleeping toons waking up and coming forward to greet everyone. "Were you guys good while we were gone?" he asked with a soft laugh when he was approached by two fairly big dogs and a cat.

A single cat…

"Where's Alice and Bendy?" he sighed.

The Butcher Gang had gathered outside their tent to see this go down.

Alice was in the tree again and had thrown ornaments at anyone who got too close, as well as pounced on Boris's tail while he was asleep. Boris would probably tell the humans that and the gang were just here to see it play out.

Sure enough, a minute later came a call from one of the humans who'd just gotten hit with an ornament. "What the- Alice!" Thomas yelled, ducking as another ornament flew at him from the tree.

"Alice!" both Susie and Alison scolded the 'angel'. "Alice Angel get down here!"

"Boris said Alice bit his tail," Lacie told the other girls. Boris had indeed told the humans.

"Alice!" the scolded again.

Henry seemed exhausted as he surveyed the ciaos. "Do I want to know where Bendy is?" he groaned.

Piper took pity on the man and tugged at his sleeve, urging him to follow him to the kitchen. Once there, he pointed up where Bendy was hanging out on the top of the cabinets.

"Bendy, we've been over this," Henry scolded him.

" _Somebody_ shredded the paper towel roll again," Norman commented, walking up with the remainder of the roll.

"Bendy, did you shred all the paper goods again?" Henry asked with a groan.

"Not all of 'em," Bendy defended himself. "You told me not to and I didn't."

"Than how come we're out of toilet paper in all the bathrooms?" Linda asked, walking in and lifting an eyebrow at the little devil.

Bendy just grinned like the Cheshire cat but didn't say anything.

Henry turned to look at the toon next to him. "Piper?" he asked.

Piper attempted to convey what had occurred without words. He pointed at Bendy, took the paper towel roll and unrolled part of it, and made a motion like he was pressing a button or lever.

"You flushed all the toilet paper?!" Henry asked, turning back to Bendy.

"Can't even talk and he's still a tattle tale," Bendy muttered.

* * *

{It was brought to my attention that I hadn't used the toons in a while, which is a disgrace, they're in the title. I do wish I could have used more of them as main characters in this chapter, but like the humans, there were too many to work with at once.

I took a lot of inspiration from my pets for this: the cat climbing the tree, seemingly teleporting over when you open a can or deli-meat, and 'nomming' on the dog's tail (not violently, just play-nipping). The dog is cute as well, way less mischievous than the cat, but I wasn't able to figure something out to, hopefully Boris and Brutus will get more content soon ^-^ Both pets are helping me edit.

With that, this is the last chapter for 2019. Thanks for reading and have a happy New Year ^-^}


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